Forever Young
by heytherestalker
Summary: I'm ready to live. I'm ready to dream. I'm ready for fear and love and everything between. Don't tell me I'm right. Don't tell me I'm wrong. Just tell me I'm strong enough for one more song.
1. San Francisco

1

If I had my pick, I'd be named something like Gwen, or maybe Victoria. I'd live in San Francisco. I'd be at the Fisherman's Wharf every afternoon, probably feeding the seagulls or wading my feet into the water even if it's mucky and illegal. I'd have a collection of those little bronze-colored souvenir coins that are actually your spare change all pounded together. I'd take pictures for fun and pin them up on a little cork board. I'd spend my money on those tourist telescopes every Friday just to look at the Alcatraz again, wondering if I could swim my way there. I'd live in a Victorian-styled house with ivory steps. I'd be a writer, a guitarist, an artist, a photographer, a lyricist, all at the same time. I'd be half Italian, part British and maybe a little bit of American, with blue eyes, long, wavy black hair, fair skin and pink cheeks.

But that isn't me.

It isn't me at all.

I couldn't pick. I couldn't change. I couldn't even be normal.

I couldn't live like a regular person.

I wasn't even close, and I knew I was never going to get a step closer.

Maybe things could have been different if I knew my dad. Things would have been different if my mom survived that car crash. If my dad stayed, maybe we could have been rich. I'd have tons of relatives that gave me gifts all the time. My mom would have nice green eyes and brown hair with a smile that made everything feel okay. My dad would be tall with black hair and brown eyes like mine. I would have an older brother that picked on me and a best friend that knew all my secrets.

Sometimes I'd like to think that the girl in my dreams was me. I like to believe that one day, I'd wake up and realize that my whole life was just a nightmare and I'd have my reality be my dreams.

But every morning, the only thing I think about is how I'm lucky I am they didn't come get me in my sleep.


	2. Nicole Blackinton

2

First of all, my name is Nicole Blackinton.

I'm fifteen years old and I was an orphan. My mother died in a car accident when I was five, and my father disappeared after that. Soon enough, I was brought to some orphanage in San Francisco. I lived there for a years until, one day, I was adopted. They were a couple with two younger girls. According to my step-aunt, they weren't my stepfather's.

Then, that brings me to him. My stepfather was a cripple. He was stuck in a wheelchair due to some kind of muscle disease. My stepmother…well, she wasn't exactly very fond of me. In some cases, I guess you could say she hated me. I always had that feeling when I wanted to scream in her face and ask her why she had agreed to adopt me in the first place.

But even though I really hated her, I loved my step-dad. He was always calm and collected. If it were the end of the world, he'd probably be reading a book.

His name was Tom. Just Tom. He had scraggly brown hair and a curly brown beard. His eyes never had a definite color when I looked at them. His smile was pearly white and warm. There was never a time when his smile didn't make me happy.

When I failed all my tests, he would smile and empathize with me.

My stepmother was the complete opposite. She hit me when I didn't get good grades. She didn't care about my dyslexia. She treated me like I was like everyone else. Usually, this would have been good except that she didn't bother even getting me those tutors that train the dyslexic to read and write properly. Her name was Marissa and she had limp, dirty-blond hair. It hung over her face like a dead broom. She was as thin as a toothpick and was at least six feet tall.

Sometimes I wondered if she was even human.

Though I hated my stepmother, I didn't hate her children. They were both younger than me. Lisa was ten and Macy was eleven. Even though we always fought, it was nice knowing you had sisters, even if you're not related at all.

Lisa and Macy are half-sisters. Marissa hooked up with two different men in college and they were the result. Honestly, I wasn't surprised that Marissa had been that stupid. I was just surprised that those two guys would want to have sex with _her_.

See, my life wasn't perfect. Sometimes, in those special moments when Tom would smile at me, or sneak out to get us some Starbucks, or when Lisa, Macy and I didn't fight, and when Marissa was asleep, everything seemed like it was the closest I would get to a perfect life. Plus, Marissa and Tom were getting a divorce.

The problem was that Will had to ruin it for me.

"Will" had to go crash that party and drag me to camp.


	3. I'm Not Who I Thought I Was

**Author Notes: **Okay. So. I know you guys have been telling me to make my chapters longer. I hope this was longer than the other one. Haha. But the thing is, I can't really write longer chapters because I'm not sure what should happen next so I just cut it a bit shorter. I don't know. I like updating occasionally and I hate letting you guys wait so...Here's the next chapter! I hope you like it. I'm actually already done writing chapter 4. But I'm waiting for reviews on this chapter to see if I should still go on writing this. Oh and by the way, I finally changed my summary. It's actually from a song but it vaguely explains what happens in this story. So yeah. I'm kind of advertising here. Listen to it: **HOPE **by _We Shot The Moon. _Love that song. Haha. Okay. Enjoy!

3

It was midnight. It was the last day of my freshman year and the last day I'd ever be a normal teenager. If I had known, I would have said goodbye to Tom, and my friends, and my stepsisters. I would have bought that album by The Academy Is… because I would've known that I wouldn't have the chance to ever come back to the CD store.

I wished that someone had given me warning about what was about to happen to me.

But if someone did, I wouldn't know whom to trust anymore after my best friend tried to kill me.

I never suspected it. I walked into the venue and was greeted by a couple of classmates. I wasted time dancing and drinking and doing random crap when I should have just ran away before she got me. If only I had known, I would have escaped before I even saw her. But I had to be as stupid as to walk to her and give her a hug and everything.

"Hi Portia." I said to her.

She stood there smiling at me. Honestly, it gave me the creeps.

I had met Portia a year ago. Since I had just been adopted and forced to move schools, she was the only one who went up to me. No don't get me wrong. I had a lot of friends. She was just my first. She barely spoke, and that usually was a good thing considering how much I talk. She just gave me that smile. Her smile. She hissed her S's and followed me a lot. Sometimes I hated her silence around me. It was always empty and I was pressured to fill it up all the time. Whenever I asked why she follows me everywhere, she doesn't speak or do anything but smile.

To sum it all up, Portia was the kind of friend that you wished you had never made friends with her.

"Hello." She said. And I knew that was it. She wasn't going to say any more. I knew that today was my last day of freshman year. I made a promise to myself that on the last day, I would tell Portia what I thought about her. It was just like Open Circle except that it was just the two of us and instead of becoming closer we were falling apart. Not that it ever worked out anyway.

"Portia…" I started. "I need to talk to you."

Her green eyes bore into me. I swallowed then glanced to the side.

"I…uhm…"

_Yesss?_

Dammit. I could actually hear her voice in my head.

"I have to go the bathroom. I'll see you later, okay?"

On that note, I left Portia standing there, staring at me.

I hated my guts. I should have just told her that I hated her. She wasn't the type to cry, or get angry. She was the type to just…smile.

I opened the door to the restroom and locked the door behind me. I splashed my face with water and looked up at the mirror.

Portia was right behind me.

My first instinct was to scream (which I did). I turned around, trying to catch my breath.

"What…what are you doing here?"

I thought she was going to smile at me again and leave but instead, she lunged forward and took hold of my neck and dug her nails into my skin. I gasped, unable to breathe. I could feel the blood trickle down my chest.

"P-Portia…"

"I knew it was you." She hissed.

Her gnarled fingers squeezed tighter around my throat. I swallowed and clawed at her hands. I could feel my lungs running out of air. I was choking and I couldn't get any more oxygen.

Please Lord help me now.

Jesus, I am _so _sorry for punching Nick yesterday after school. I didn't mean to. It's just that he stole my CD's and broke them and when I asked him to g—

"AAAAAH!!!"

I opened my eyes. The bathroom door was broken down and Portia wasn't choking me anymore. Instead, she was on the floor trying to scramble to her…

What…

Instead of her legs…

She had…

Snakes?

Snakes on were her legs…a whole bunch of them. Oh my God. They were moving and slithering around everywhere.

"Oh gods…_more dracaenae?"_

I didn't recognize the new voice. I looked up to see a boy, probably nineteen, with familiar green eyes, a dark expression, and a blazing sword in hand. In his other hand, he was holding the doorknob of the broken door. He broke the door.

"What the…" I trailed off.

"Another demigod? Don't the gods have any better help?" Portia sneered, tongue flicking everywhere. I wasn't sure what I saw, but the tip of her tongue looked almost forked.

Before she could attack him, he drove the knife right into her chest. I closed my eyes, expecting to be splattered with blood or something, but instead, there was a bright spark and she was gone. I opened my eyes to see that she had disintegrated into nothing.

"Oh hello." The boy said to me. "I'm Will."

"You killed her." I said shakily. "Oh my God, you killed someone…that's…that's murder."

"No," Will said slowly. "That's self-defense. Did you see her face?"

"I'm not joking." I said seriously. Will's eyes didn't look serious at all. In fact, he seemed totally fine with impaling my sort-of friend.

"I'm not either." Will said. "I saved your life."

Though I didn't want to admit it, he really did. I thought I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen under Portia's grasp. And I was totally fine with him saving my life. The only thing I was really bothered about was the sword and the random questions popping up in my head. It's just that, who was he? And how did he know I was in trouble? How did he know me? Why was he so familiar? Was he a boxers or a brief kind of guy? What did his orange t-shirt say? Where did he get that sword? Why is he carrying a sword around? Is he some kind of assassin? Where did Portia go? Why did—

"I know you're probably wondering what just happened back there." Will interrupted my stream of questions. "That was a monster; a dracaenae. She tried to kill you."

"No shit." I said, still pondering where Portia's body went.

"Well, since you'll probably be attacked by those things everyday, you should know, you're not normal."

"Are you saying I'm abnormal?"

"No. No, no, no…I meant to say, you're not like everyone else. You're like me."

"You're saying that I'm like you when I don't even know you."

"Yeah. You're a dem—"

"Thanks for your help back there." I said. "But please, leave me alone."

"Nikki! Wait! No—"

Before I could ask him how he knew my name, he had grabbed my wrists and spun me around.

"You don't understand." He said. "You have to come with me."

I pulled my hand out of his grip.

"No thank you."

Will, still staring at his hands as if it was impossible that I had gotten away, chased after me as I waded through the throng of people. Crowds cheered and danced to the music, jumping everywhere and giving a good obstacle.

"Nikki—"

I heard his voice sounding muffled.

I had reached the exit and was waiting for a cab outside beside the streetlamp when Will had caught me.

"Nice try…" he huffed. "But you're not getting rid of me _that _easily."

"Go away." I said.

I didn't want to follow this guy. I didn't want to come with him. I didn't even know him. I was begging God, praying that he wasn't another of those MySpace stalkers. It was hard enough getting rid of the other two, now him.

"You don't understand." Will said finally after catching his breath. "I was sent here by Lord Apollo. I was sent here to take you to camp."

"I'm not seven. I don't _do _summer camp."

"You will when you find out who you are." Will said.

"Well then, don't tell me."

Will frowned.

"Well, I could do that. I mean, it gets worse you find out…but that's risky and it's already pretty obvious if those dracaenae were after you…so it's better if you just learn how to defend yourself instead of forcing yourself not to know about…Hey! Where are you going?"

"Going home!" I yelled at him. "Don't think of following me!"

I was walking quickly away from him now, hopefully getting rid of him temporarily. I knew he was going to try to get me back again. So for now, I wanted him to stay away for a while.

***BEEP*****BEEP***

"No way." I muttered to myself.

***BEEP*BEEP***

Before I knew it, Will was driving slowly beside me at my pace. He was in a beat up old Audi with worn out tires and a leaky engine. The speed he was going now was probably the car's max.

"Come on," Will called. "I have a car?"

"It's not very tempting." I replied casually.

"Seriously." Will said. "I have to take you to Chiron."

"Where's that?" I asked, feigning interest.

"He lives nearby. Come on, it's important. Do a guy a favor and make his mission easier. Please?"

I stopped walking. Will stopped driving.

"Is that a yes?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes, getting into the car.

"Yes."


	4. No One Is Who They're Supposed To Be

**Author Notes: Hey people! Wow, so I'm updating pretty quickly. I hope you guys have been keeping up with me. Okay. So I just want to say thanks for all your support! I love seeing it whenever I open my email and it reads, "Fanfiction Review Alert". Gods, it feels so amazing knowing that someone reads my stories. Okay, so I just want to promote my other story. It's called I DON'T LOVE YOU. If you're a My Chemical Romance fan, then yes. I stole the title from the song. But the song has no relation to the story. It's a Thalia and Luke story so I hope you guys like it. Okay. So here's chapter four. Enjoy! Oh and I really think I'm getting the hang of writing longer chapters. Haha. It's not as hard as it seems.**

4

The car ride was silent.

I hated silent.

It was just like being with Portia again. It was lonely, empty, quiet. I think that was one of the reasons I loved music so much. It filled with the wide spaces of shyness between everyone. It was one common thing with people. Like, there is a complete stranger out in this world and the only thing that binds you together is the music you listen to. I always thought of music as a fight for peace. It always brought everyone together, no matter what you do. You couldn't hide from it. It's music.

Obviously, Will wasn't the type to care if it was quiet. He just calmly drove down the roads, taking rights and lefts, here and there.

It was silent.

Silence made me nervous and fidgety. At least with noise, you had a hint of what was going on. Silence made always made you guess.

"So…" I said. And that was the farthest that we got.

After a couple of minutes, I got bored and started playing with the window, clicking the button and pulling it up again. The wind whisked my hair around my face and filled the car with cool air.

"You don't talk very much." Will said finally.

"Me? You think _I _don't talk so much?" It surprised me how forceful my voice was sounding at the moment. But really, bottling up everything and giving in to the silence just wasn't working out.

Will was quiet after that. He didn't speak until we arrived in front of my house.

"You took me home?" I said.

"What? No." he replied, taking out his cellphone and started dialing a number. "Hello? Oh hi. Um…no. It's me. Will. Anyway, I found her! I mean, really, I did. What? But I don't get to…Owens? Why him…oh. Okay. Yeah. There's this other kid but he's all the way in Maryland. Yeah. Yeah sure…No I was…"

I stopped listening and started clicking a button on the streetlamp. Quickly, the stoplight changed to green and flashed an outline of a walking person.

"Yeah okay, bye." Will shut the phone and threw it in the next trashcan.

"What was that for?" I asked, following him towards my front door.

"You don't want another monster to get us, do you?" Will said as we passed the FOR SALE sign that was mounted on the front lawn.

He rang the doorbell and waited.

"You _do _know that I have a key." I told him.

"Why do you have a key to—"

The door opened. It was Tom sitting in his wheelchair. We stayed alone in the house now without Marissa. After the divorce had been settled, she had taken Lisa and Macy with her so it was just the two of us.

"Hi Tom." I said.

"Hello Nikki." He replied.

"Hi Chiron! This is Nikki." Will said with a smile, his hands on his shoulders.

"I know." Tom said.

"I caught her." Will said, still looking proud.

"Yes, I see." Tom said. "You caught my step-daughter."

I decided to shut up and watch Will look stupid.

"No, this is Lord Apollo's." Will said.

"I know." Tom said.

"This is the girl that he asked me to take to camp."

"I know."

"And she's the one that—"

"Whatever you're about to say, I know. She's a demigod."

"You knew?"

"Yes. She's been living under my roof for a year now so…"

"She's been what?" Will asked, stepping back. "What?"

"She's adopted. Of course."

"So then, I killed a dracaenae for nothing?"

"Yes, pretty much."

Will looked at me then sighed as if I was a total waste of his time. I probably was considering all the hard work he went through: finding me, killing Portia, persuading me to come with him, chasing me, then taking me home just to find out that I didn't need to be found.

"Oh. Well, I better get going then." Will said disappointedly, his green eyes saddening. "There's this other kid that dad told me to go find."

"See you at camp, William." Tom said, nodding before Will exited our front yard with heavy steps. Tom smiled one last time before backing up his wheelchair and wheeling away from the door.

"Tom!" I called quickly, shutting the door behind me. "Tom."

He stopped his moving and swerved around.

"Yes?"

"What was Will talking about? All that demigod stuff."

"Oh, er, well, nothing." Tom said. "It's better if you don't find out."

"Will said that was risky." I recalled, tapping my chin with my index finger.

The look on Tom's face assured me that this was going to be complicated. Also the way he said, "Nikki, I think you have to sit down."

"Oh come on, just tell me. Sitting down never works out for me anyway."

Tom sighed, shaking his head.

"Alright. Let's start with me. I'm not Tom."

"Huh?"

"I'm Chiron."

"So where's Tom?"

"No one's Tom. Tom never existed. I'm Tom. But there isn't a Tom. It's Chiron now. I'm—"

"Okay, 'Chiron,'"—air quotation—"What else is there to know?"

Chiron scrunched up his eyebrows. This wasn't going to be easy to understand.

"It's about your dad…" he said quietly.

I felt a spark inside my chest. My fingers tingled and went numb. I had so little memories about my dad that I would do anything to find out about him.

"What…" I couldn't even say it. "What about…my…"

"Your father…" Chiron's face seemed difficult to read but I could tell he had done this several times in the past. "Your father…he's not who you think he is."

"Who is he?" I laid my hands out on the table. "Tell me."

"He's not…human. He's…a god."

I blinked. Chiron wasn't making sense. This wasn't making sense. Tonight wasn't real. Nothing was real. My life wasn't real. This had to be a nightmare. Everything had to be a nightmare. Portia. Will. Tom.

Dad.

Dad was a nightmare. He was a nightmare that came haunting me after I had put away all the unknown things we ever had together. Things that I would never know about and wasn't sure if I wanted to.

"Nikki," Chiron said. "You know Apollo, right? The god of the sun?"

I nodded, swallowing.

"Are you saying…" I stopped and cleared my throat. "Are you saying that my dad…he's Apollo? The Greek god?"

"Yes."

I shook my head, pushing off the table.

"This is retarded. Seriously. Do you expect me to believe that my father is that guy from the books? The one that never existed? The myths?"

Thunder shook the house slightly. A flash of lightning cut through the black sky.

"Yes." Chiron said. "There are thousands of you. Don't worry. You're just like everyone else. Lord Apollo has tons of children."

My heart stopped. Chiron probably didn't know it, but he had crushed everything I had believed in from this day. He said too much for me. My dad had hundreds of children. I used to dream about my parents. I used to believe that they loved each other. I used to think that the only reason that my dad left was because of my mom's death. I figured that he couldn't take her loss so he just ran.

But here I was, being told that my dad was just fine, running off with hundreds more women, having hundreds of other kids, like I was just another one.

In his eyes, I probably was.


	5. Molly Might Make Out With You

**I'm not going to write another disclaimer.**

**I OWN ALL THE MAIN CHARACTERS HERE. ALL THE REST ARE RICK RIORDAN. HE'S AMAZING.**

**Oh and, another thing. If any of you guys know The Friday Night Boys, then yeah. This chapter is named after one of their songs: Molly Makeout.**

**Haha. I just realized how much I talk about music in my fanfics. I love it.**

**Author Notes:**

**OKAY. Sorry I haven't updated in a while. **

**It hasn't been that long right? **

**Anyway, here's a new chapter. **

**I made it longer than usual so I hope you guys enjoy!**

** PS: I have another Percy + Annabeth story coming up! Sorry, I don't like using the name of the pairing. OKAY. ENJOY!**

5

I know I should have been shocked by what I learned last night. I shouldn't have been able to take anything that I was finding out. I shouldn't have been able to process anything that I was being told.

But I did.

I believed every word that Chiron had told me.

I had no choice.

I needed a family. Chiron had told me that he was planning on just making me an all-year camper since I couldn't stay with him forever. I wouldn't have to go to school, study, and deal with homework. I wouldn't fail anything because my dyslexia didn't really affect anything at camp. Chiron said that it would even help me be able to read. But—though he didn't mention it—I knew that there was a downside too. I wouldn't have friends, I'd be lonely, stuck at camp my whole life waiting for the campers with families to come back. I knew I needed a family, at least one person. If this camp could help me find my dad, I wasn't going to turn it down.

I also learned the weirdest thing. He said that Mount Olympus was actually in the Empire State Building. Yeah, right. I mean I was always good at Greek mythology. The whole concept of the gods and humans and monsters always fascinated me; the way they were all connected, and how one's actions affected the world today. But even I was smart enough to know that the gods were in Greece. Duh. They were up in Athens. Plus, wasn't the Empire State Building the building that was crashed into by two planes at 9/11? Or wait; was it the World Trade Center? I wasn't actually sure since I had never been to the west coast. Whenever I traveled, it was always out of the country or inside California. Chiron just frowned and explained that the gods couldn't stay at Greece since it had been taken over by the Romans, thus being forced to change names.

Zeus = Jupiter

Aphrodite = Venus

Poseidon = Neptune

Hermes = Mercury

Ares = Mars

Hera = Juno

Dionysus = Bacchus

Demeter = Ceres

Athena = Minerva

Hades = Pluto

Kronos = Saturn

And so on…

So now, they were in America. I wasn't surprised since everything was in America. First, we were the only country that had ever spotted a UFO. Next, we are the only country that actually had a total ass like George Bush as president. We had that hurricane Katrina. And now, we have gods on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building.

I _also _should have been surprised that Chiron wasn't human either. At first, I was startled and backed away from him as he clopped around the house. He was half-horse and half-human. I knew him from somewhere. There were hundreds of them in the Greek stories. What did they call them? Satyrs? No, no wait. Those were the goat boys. Then I remembered. He was a centaur. His legs were long and knobby and white, bumpy at some edges just like a regular horse. I would have screamed and ran if it wasn't so cool.

I went to bed at two forty-seven A.M. I usually had dreams about what I don't know or what I should find out about. That night, I didn't. I guessed it was probably because I knew everything I should.

I fell out of bed hours later. It was four in the morning. I shouldn't be awake or falling out of bed at this time. Chiron said we were leaving for camp at seven. I had three more hours. The sky was still dark and showed no signs of the sun. I rolled out of bed lazily, realizing that I had went to bed in my party outfit; a blue tank top and a black skirt that was hiked up higher than it was supposed to be, with a thick white jacket over it. I shrugged off the jacket and hung it over my bed stand. I was hungry and my feet hurt like hell. Maybe it was because I had forgotten to take my heels off too.

I walked outside my room and stepped out. The house was huge, by the way. Marissa was one of those girls from snotty rich families. She had inherited this house after getting knocked up twice and marrying Chiron. It was big and white with marble floors and long ceiling lights. There were only two floors but they were long and vast, stretching out on both sides. The house was lit up, the lights still on. I leaned against the railing that overlooked the first floor. I felt empty and before I knew it, I was thwacking down in my shoes towards the kitchen. I opened the fridge, feeling the familiar blast of cool air that made me want to just stick my face inside for a few minutes. I pulled out an apple and went towards the dining table. I sat down in silence, all alone. There were four empty chairs around me and I didn't really like it. I was halfway finished with the apple before I had fallen asleep again.

The next time I woke up, the sun was slightly out, still peeking through the clouds. By instinct, I just knew that it was 6:30. I sat up, dropping the core of the apple accidentally. I didn't bother picking it up. I just ran up the stairs, tripping over my heels with every step. I had to pack. I forgot. I had to pack and I was leaving in thirty minutes. Oh God. I was never going to make it. I got into my room and slammed the door behind me. I pulled out a big red bag and quickly unzipped it from my closet. I brought out random clothes out and stuffed them inside. I didn't bother putting in jeans or sweatpants because it was summer. I was just throwing all my clothes inside, creating piles of them everywhere.

***BEEP*****BEEP***

My eyes widened. I ran over to the other side of my room and opened my windows. There was a small, yellow taxicab. Chiron opened my door.

"Nicole?" he said. "The car's…what in Hades' name is this?"

I wasn't sure if he was talking about the mess I was in or the poor excuse of a packed luggage.

"You…" he furrowed his eyebrows. "You forgot to pack last night?"

"I…I fell asleep…" I stammered. "Seriously."

"Well, that's pretty obvious considering your outfit. And your hair."

I ran a hand through my hair. It was around my face, my bangs intact, with everything else curling at weird edges. I groaned.

"Never mind that." I said, crouching beside my luggage. "I have to fix this."

"Alright." Chiron said. "I'll be downstairs, waiting."

I sighed, taking my clothes out again. I refolded them neatly and in ten minutes tops, I was finished folding. I placed them inside carefully, trying to fit everything inside. After another five minutes, I was done packing.

I grabbed a purple jacket off my dresser and zipped it up. Thankfully, it was long and reached above my knees, long enough for it to hide my outfit from last night. I slipped my laptop inside the bag and tucked in my iPod. I grabbed my camera off my shelf and headed downstairs with my luggage in hand.

Outside, Chiron was struggling to get into the front seat. I made my way towards the car and opened up the hatch. I heaved my bag up, pushed it towards the back, away from two others and made my way inside the car.

"Wow, you look nice." A boy said to me.

I looked at him.

"Who are _you_?" I asked. His electric blue eyes shifted around my face, scanning me. Then they examined my clothes. I didn't like it.

"You look like you just woke up." He said.

"Thanks." I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Not in a bad way, of course." He said.

I wasn't sure how looking like I just woke up wasn't a bad thing. I was pretty sure there was no good side to that comment either.

He had brown hair and blue eyes with something about them seemed unreal. Like, it wasn't possible that they could be that blue. He wore dark jeans and an orange t-shirt under a blue jacket.

"Hey Chiron," I asked after fifteen minutes of driving. "Where are we going?"

"New York." He replied, as the taxi took a left to the airport.

"What?"

No way. I didn't think we were _really _going there. I thought there was some local branch here in California. We weren't seriously going there. I mean, we'd have to fly and judging by the info that Chiron had given me last night; we would get blasted right out of the sky if we were children of the wrong god.

As if reading my mind, the boy said,

"Don't worry. Dad wouldn't kill me."

"Huh?"

"So who's yours? You kinda look like Lord Apollo."

"What?"

"Your dad."

"What about my dad?"

"Who is he?"

"Stop fighting." Chiron said.

"We're not fighting." I said.

"Of course we're not. I don't even know your name," the boy told me.

"What?"

"What?"

"What."

"I don't want to talk to you anymore." I said curtly.

"Fine. Gods," he muttered.

"Ugh."

I turned around and refused to talk to him. God, boys are all the same. The car parked and Chiron paid the cabbie. We got out of the cab and watched the driver unload our stuff. I stretched my arms out, yawning as Chiron moved around in his wheelchair. I took the handle of my bag and lugged it off the pavement and into the airport.

I unzipped my jacket and my hand-carry bag and put it inside a red basin. The boy took off his backpack and did the same. I waited on the other side of the scanner and took my bag and slung my jacket over my shoulder as we headed for the check-in counter.

As Chiron spoke to the woman behind the desk, I sat down on the trolley that we had taken inside to help us bring the bags around.

"Hey," the boy said. "Look, I'm Logan."

I sighed. At least he knew that he should be the one to speak first. I smiled, waving at him though we were only two feet apart.

"Nikki."

"So, what are you listening to?" he asked me, pointing at the headphones placed around my neck.

"Oh…uh…nothing."

"What?"

"It'snothingIjustfeltlikelisteningtoJustinBieber…" I said the words in a rush, hoping he wouldn't be able to decipher anything I was saying.

"I heard Justin Bieber." He said, smiling.

"I felt like it, _okay._" I rolled my eyes. "I'm not one of those girls that are so totally in love with him. I'm not. Trust me."

"Oh yeah, 'cause I totally expected you to be so in love with him." He said sarcastically.

"You know what?" I said. "I'm changing the song."

I clicked next and a familiar plucking of guitar strings.

"I love that song." Logan said.

"You can hear it?" I asked. I was about to offer him an earphone when I realized that I had broken them a few months back. Now I was stuck using these Skullcandy headphones. I didn't really mind though. I was just annoyed that I had broken my other ones and now I couldn't offer anyone to listen.

A steady strumming of a louder guitar overlapped the plucking.

"Yeah, it's pretty loud." He said. "Are you always like that?"

"Well I wasn't born quiet." I replied. It was true. I mean, what was the point of listening to music quietly? Music was used to bring you somewhere else, to help you think about something completely unthinkable. It was supposed to distract you, to change you, to drown out all your thoughts and get you concentrated on the song.

Then he started singing softly. "_Let me tell you about this girl I know. Molly Makeout whoa uh oh…"_ He was slightly messy and a little bit out of tune, but I couldn't blame him. I probably couldn't do any better anyway.

"_It's rising action. Molly Makeout satisfaction."_ I didn't know why I was singing along with Logan. Before I knew it, it was the chorus and we were singing,

"_Molly, Molly Makeout! Any time, any guy. Just watch your back. You won't know what to do. Molly might make out with you…"_

Chiron was done checking in our baggage.

"Alright. Let's go." He said looking content. I glanced at his eyes one more time. They looked oddly bright, almost yellow. I didn't know if I was seeing things but his eyes had a weird effect in them. I wondered if it was just a matter of perspective or maybe just your point of view but they really never stayed the same.

Logan helped Chiron heave the bags up on the side of the counter, and I just stood there watching all three bags slide away on the belt.

"That's a pretty messed up song." Logan said, adjusting the straps of his backpack on one arm.

"I know," I replied. "Molly sounds retarded."

"Like some person from rehab or something." Logan said.

"Stop fighting." Chiron said.

"We're not fighting." Logan told him.

I took out my passport from my pocket. We lined up for the immigration lines. I took my headphones and pulled it over my ears. The song had changed. Now it was Banana Pancakes. I wondered if Logan knew this song too.

I reached the front of the line where I handed the passport the man. I quickly pushed my headphones back down on my neck. The man was chubby with curly hair and wheezed every time he inhaled. He had red glasses that were slipping down his eyes and rested on his nose and a frown on his mouth. He stamped my passport a few times, glancing at my face from time to time. At last, he gave it back to me and said, "Next." I stepped over the yellow line and slipped past him and the box he was in.

"Alright." Chiron said once we were all done with the immigration. "Well, we're running late so we have to hurry. Plane leaves in seven minutes so…"

The next thing I knew, we were sprinting off, reaching the gate just in time, still trying to catch our breaths.

"That was close." Logan said.

"I know."

We were the last passengers here in the waiting area. I gave my ticket and watched the man scan it, rip a part, and hand it back to me. I boarded the plane and found my seat.

"I call the window seat!" Logan said.

"No way. You can't call the window seat. I _always _get the windows seat."

"No," Logan said slowly. "_I _get the windows seat."

"No, _I _do." Chiron said, making his way to the end beside the window.

I shrugged.

"Fine." I said, sitting down in between both of them.

So many things have happened to me already. I wished I were that girl in my dreams again. I wanted that family she had. I wanted the love she had. I wanted everything that I didn't have. When I stopped to think about it, there was nothing in my life right now that I really did love. I didn't have something I could treasure. I couldn't even tell myself that my dad loved me one bit. I had no proof whatsoever. He didn't leave me with anything at all. It wasn't like in the movies. I wasn't left with a special locket shaped as a heart with a picture of my parents neatly inserted inside. I didn't have something to hold onto that reminded me of him. I didn't even know him, at all. I had no memory of him. I didn't remember anything about him. It was like he never existed. It was like I only had a mom, and when she was gone I had Tom and Marissa. Those three people were the only one's I remembered. But here I was, strapped in an airplane seat, on my way to a life that never should have existed if I my life was right. I would never have been forced to go. I would never have been one of those special children. I was supposed to be normal. I was supposed to be just a girl. I was supposed to have parents, and a house, and everything.

I had nothing.

I shoved my hand-carry bag under the seat of the person in front of me and put on my headphones again. By now, two songs had passed since Banana Pancakes. Now it was The Bends by Radiohead.

_"I wish…I wish that something would happen." _

The voice would sing. It was ironic, actually.

That was the last thing I wanted right now.


	6. Welcome To The New De Ja Vu

**Author Notes: Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated in a while. If you were here in the Philippines, you would know why. It's elections and my family is VERY involved with politics. It sucks. I hate politics and anything that has to do with the government. My dad was recently almost shot inside his car, but then instead, the one who really got hurt was the driver. I was crying and I had a major writer's block because I couldn't think of anything. The only thing I seemed capable of doing was to swim. Seriously. I don't know why. So I just swam a lot and now I have a slight tan. Okay, but enough about me.**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Sorry again for the delay! I tried to make it as long as possible. So far, this is my longest one so...**

**Random Fact: Justin Bieber is stuck in my head.**

6

Welcome To The New Déjà Vu.

Okay so I just want to start off this chapter with saying something about the title. Welcome To The New Déjà Vu. Do you know what song that line is from? Well, it's okay. It doesn't matter if you don't. All that you're supposed to know is that it is somewhat relevant to what happens in this chapter. This part of my life is a short one. In fact, it only lasted for two hours. Part of these two hours were spent in the back seat of another taxicab. Do you know where this taxicab was headed? Yup. You guessed it. Camp Half-Blood. (If you were thinking the Seven Eleven or Disneyland or something, well then you're obviously wrong, and have me wondering why the hell you're reading this.)

If you were smart enough, I think you could tell that I'm a music person. I had always been passionate and completely in love with it. I literally could. Not. Live. Without. It.

Car rides were suddenly so damn awkward. I had never hated them or something like that. I actually liked car rides, or road trips. I'd rather be stuck in a car for ten hours than take an airplane to my destination. Nope. I didn't care how fast it took to get where I wanted. I honestly just didn't like moving. I wasn't the lazy type, but I'd rather sleep than exercise or whatever. The radio was playing some soft tune with the volume turned down. That suddenly made me detest the stupid cabbie. He obviously didn't mind the awkwardness roaming inside the car. Stupid. Cabbie.

Then again, something positive actually came out of the silence. I had some kind of epiphany. It was some sort of amazing realization. Did you know that feeling when something so obvious was staring right at you and it took you so freaking long to find out about it? Well that was pretty much the feeling. Out of nowhere, I slapped the heel of my palm against my forehead and smiled.

"Oh my God." I said.

Logan turned to me slowly.

"What?"

"Did you notice?" I asked him. "Did you notice that whenever you sit down, you suddenly run out of things to talk about? I mean, think about it. I'm sure you have friends. And I'm sure you talk more when you're walking and not sitting down, right? Right?"

Okay, okay, I know. It wasn't _that _amazing. But it was true and even you know it. It took me at least 2 minutes to realize how stupid I looked. Chiron turned his head slightly towards me and stared. Even the taxi driver was giving me an awkward look through his rearview mirror.

"Oh my gods, you're right!" Logan exclaimed.

I grinned.

"Told you." I said.

Insert awkward pause here.

Logan and I were just looking at each other until I finally decided to just look the other direction. He blushed, scratching the back of his ear, and turning away too. I looked out the window. First of all, there were skyscrapers everywhere. Some buildings were so tall; I couldn't even see the top anymore. It made me wonder which one was Olympus. Well, I guess I had to just keep my eyes peeled for a building with six hundred floors. Next, there were subways in every corner and people rushing around. The sidewalk and the street looked equally packed. I couldn't even see the asphalt under the people's feet. Everyone was on cell phones, talking business or just plain talking. I couldn't spot anyone that didn't look busy at all.

Hello New York.

I had that sudden urge to break out into song and dance of New York New York. I suddenly loved this place. There was no such thing as slowing down. Everything was head-on and dead-set on something. There wasn't time to think. It was just time to do something about it. I didn't know where all these things that were popping in my head came from, but it gave me a rush in my brain. I closed my eyes and stopped looking out the window because of the slight headache I was getting from just staring at the beautiful city. If this was New York, how much more amazing would Paris be? God, I didn't even know how Paris was related to any of this, but I decided that I would just think about it for a while. Ow. I think New York is giving me a migraine.

I was here. I was actually here. Now, I had another awkward feeling in me. Weird, I was feeling a lot inside me lately. Maybe I had eaten something weird. I don't know. I wouldn't know. I didn't care. I was in New York. Holy crap. This was all real. This wasn't a joke. I'm seriously a demigod. Oh. My. God. Chiron wasn't kidding. He seriously went through all the trouble to take me to camp. Oh my God. There was seriously a camp! I wasn't hallucinating! This better not just be another dream. Because this was definitely one dream that I would never want to wake up from. Amazing. I'm a demigod. I just loved how that sounded. Demigod. Demigod. Demigod. Demigod. I was half-god. HALF-FUCKING-GOD. How amazing am I? Yes. Very. Seriously. I felt invincible and holy at the same time. I felt like Jesus' sister. I WAS SO AMAZING RIGHT NOW. I could have jumped out of the moving car and lived and come out unharmed. Half god. Half blood. Demigod.

Huh. That was weird.

Okay, I know I sounded so excited and so into it right now, but then that awkward feeling settled. I was forcing myself to be happy about this. I couldn't really believe it. I wasn't in shock or anything. Well, I was at first, but then I just believed it and hung on to Chiron's words. I had no choice. That was it. I just had nothing to believe in so I just believed him. I felt so naïve, believing everything. Truth be told, I had no idea what was going on and just went with it. It was like: you're a demigod. Okay. Your dad is Apollo. Okay. He's the sun god. Okay. You're half god. Okay. You're getting shipped off to camp. Sure, whatever.

It was just like that with me. I didn't like questioning things. I just wanted to know it. If you told me to do something, I'd do it. And I guarantee you no questions. I didn't understand why people couldn't just be like that. Couldn't you just understand and move on with life? That was just how I saw things. But seeing my point of view right now wasn't helping what I was thinking.

Chiron told me that most demigods cry, or break into tears once they find out. I mean, they finally know where they came from! They know who their other parent is! Hoorah. You're dad's not dead. He's a god. Your mother lied to you. Boo-hoo. Chiron said that that was usually the story. You grow up thinking that the other half of you is gone forever, then before you turn thirteen, you're mortal parent drops the bomb on you. You're father/mother isn't dead. Whoops. Sorry for not telling you. It was for your own good. Blah. Blah. Blah. And more crap.

Me? I never had that. There wasn't a bomb of truth (WTF. Did I just use "bomb of truth"?) dropped right on my lap. I guess I just wasn't one of the lucky ones—not that demigods were really considered lucky. It was more of unfortunate, really. Okay, unfortunate was an understatement.

IT SUCKED.

I hadn't even started camp and I could already tell. Giving up your completely normal life to fight off monsters and serve the gods? Sure, it might sound awesome at first. I know you. You wanna be a demigod, don't you? You just wish you were one right now. Yeah, well be careful what you wish for. It's gonna bite you in the butt someday.

I didn't know what I wanted. Did I want to be like the other demigods? Did I want to break down and cry? Did everything really have to sink in? I wondered why I wasn't like that. I had never been extremely emotional or something, but I wasn't dead. I just wished that I had felt something more. I wanted the feeling that the others had when they found out. I wanted that beautiful rush move through my veins when I found out that I had a father. It was funny, actually. Here I was, driving through New York City, not excited or scared, knowing exactly who he was.

And then there was my mom.

I didn't like bringing her up very much. Maybe it was because it was her fault that my life turned out so screwed up. Maybe it was because she left me in this world to survive on my own without any warning that I was out to be killed. Or maybe I just missed her. I tried not to think of her, though she always caught up with me in my dreams. I barely knew her and I was dreaming about her? It was like some random, beautiful woman just popping up in my dream. I hated it, really. I wanted to know something from her. I didn't. I hated that.

What I also hated was why I was just suddenly thinking about things like that. I was in some kind of reverie of thought.

"Nikki. Hello. Wake up."

I blinked, taking me back to reality. Logan was waving his palm over my eyes. I blinked again, instinctively slapping his hand away from my face.

"What?" I said to him. I was suddenly kind of mad at him for that.

"Nothing." He replied. "You just kind of spaced out."

I exhaled, embarrassed.

"Oh. Um. Then, what do you want?"

"Well, I…"

"Stop fighting." Chiron said.

"We're not fighting." Logan said.

"Hey, what's that?" I asked, poking his backpack.

"What?"

"That." I pointed at the two sticks poking out of his bag. "Are those drumsticks?"

"Um. Well, technically…"

I reached out to pick them up when Logan took my wrist. I stared at his hand gripping mine.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He said.

I narrowed my eyes.

"You're selfish."

"I am not selfish."

"We're pretty lucky, you know." Chiron cut us off.

I just frowned and looked blankly at him as he adjusted in his seat beside me.

"Usually, campers are killed off before they even reach camp." Then he turned to me. "Nikki, you're actually in danger right now."

"Why?"

"Because," he said, "Logan's here."

I shifted my attention to Logan. He just gave a wide-eyed look and turned away. I tried to focus on something else, and decided to just stare at one of the decors of the cab. It had cheap stickers on the windows and the leather of the seats had holes in them. Some of the yellow sponge under the cushion had spilled out over the sides. The only thing that really stood out was a little bear keychain. No, it was the cute little teddy bear kind. It was a bear's head on a keychain. It was the grizzly bear type, with it's mouth wide open as if it was shot right between a roar. It was ugly, actually. Disgusting, in my taste. A bear's head? Really? Gross.

"So, I'm lucky?" I said, breaking the sudden silence. I always hated those damn silences. I didn't know why, but I was having a lot of them lately.

"Yes, extremely." Chiron nodded. "But still. You should learn to defend yourself, because there ar—"

"You're wrong. Because you aren't going to be so lucky this time."

We all turned to the cabbie. He had on a snarl on his face, but a wide smile nonetheless. I shivered. He gave me the creeps.

"What are you—"

Before I knew it, the car stopped and he was on top of me. I didn't know what to do. I just started yelling, "Rapist! Rapist!"

My heart was pounding. Only then did I see how he really looked. It scarred me for life and made my brain hurt just looking at him. He wasn't real. He couldn't be real. He couldn't be. His bodies made me want to throw up.

"Nikki! Move!"

I couldn't move. I tried to block his punches over my face. He drove knives towards me. I barely dodged them, some of the blades sticking only inches from my heart was racing. What did he want? I yelped and tried to kick him off me. Successfully, he stumbled back against the seat. I froze, staring at him once more. His bodies scattered everywhere. Three of them sprouted from his single head, each wearing their own set of clothing. I bit my lip. I just stared at him.

"Nikki! Run!" I turned around. Outside, Logan was yelling at me to do all these things. I realized I was alone in the car with…_the thing._ I opened the door shakily, scrambling outside. My legs were giving up on me. I felt as weak as ever.

_Get a grip, Nikki. It's no big deal. Just some pedo with three bodies, right? Nothing to be afraid of…_

_Right?_

_Chiron. God. Please help me._

I felt that Christian part inside me tug at my stomach. What did the priest say again? Pray? Oh my God. I couldn't believe it. Myself of all people was thinking of prayer and God and Jesus. One of my step-aunts had given me a silver crucifix necklace for my twelfth birthday. I touched my neck where I wore it. I hadn't even taken it off since then. I wasn't even sure why I was still wearing it since there wasn't just God anymore. There were gods. My dad I was a god. I was half-god.

I felt Chiron grab my shoulder and toss me towards the pavement. I groaned as my shoulder blade hit the asphalt. I felt pain and bruises in my body, crushing against the floor. My skin scraped against the rough road.

"Geryon!" Chiron shouted, taking out a bow. A bow. Oh my God. Wow. He was using a bow. Hasn't anyone ever thought of bringing a gun?

The cabbie rushed out the taxi and pulled out knives from his pocket. I just shrieked and ducked behind a tree. Logan jumped back inside the car and dragged his backpack behind him.

"Think fast!"

He pulled out the drumsticks and tossed me one, accidentally hitting me square in the head.

"I said, think fast!" he yelled.

"Well you should know that I don't think very fast!" I yelled back, rubbing my forehead. I grumbled, picking up the drumstick.

"Click it!" he shouted.

"What?"

I looked at him as he did some trick with the drumstick, magically transforming it into a sword. My eyes widened. He lunged for the _thing_ (yes. I think I'll be calling the driver with three bodies, "the thing" now.) And he just kept driving the stick/sword into his bodies. I watched, frozen. Oh my God. He was crazy. The driver just groaned, taking every stab. This was disgusting, and disturbing, and gross. I was going to be sick, or pass out. Either one. I didn't care. I just wanted to get away. I wanted to go home. I didn't want to see what I was seeing. I didn't want to be a demigod if this is everyday life.

The thing (Haha. Calling it that just made me think of that guy in Fantastic Four) finally jerked to the side, dodging Logan's knife and sticking it into the ground. Logan unsuccessfully tried to tug it out, gave up and ran behind the car and started spilling out the contents of his backpack.

"Shit." I heard him curse and look helpless. I stared at the drumstick in my hand and sighed. If I wasn't going to be any help, then might as well let someone do my job for me.

"Logan!" I shouted, "Think fast!"

He looked up at the sound of his voice, getting his head bonked with the drumstick. I almost broke into a laugh, but decided against it. I shouldn't be laughing. He quickly gathered his wits and picked up the stick and did the same with the other one. I watched them fight off the taxi driver. I had a weird need to call 911 right now. We were in the middle of the road, being attacked by the cabbie. What are the chances of that? Chiron was out of his wheelchair and shooting arrows at the thing. If I couldn't trust the police, then I wouldn't know whom to trust. I just jumped behind the taxi and sat there. I closed my eyes and hugged my legs to my chest.

_Pussy. Get up. Stop being one._

_I am _not _a pussy._

_Pussy._

_Fuck off._

_Hey, put up or shut up, right?_

I groaned, getting up slowly. I had to do something. Logan was wrestling the monster. They grabbed each other on the hands and pushed the weight back. My heart pounded. One of—Geryon, was it?—Geryon's legs kicked forward and slapped against Logan's knee, letting him lose his footing and sending him tumbling back. Chiron was clopping towards Geryon, shooting arrows as he approached quickly. He wasn't going to die. I watched each of the arrows stick itself into one of his bodies—ugh. It still made me sick that he had…_bodies_. It was useless. I ran over to Logan, unsure what to do. I wanted to help, but I didn't want to get hurt. Hah. I couldn't believe myself. I was such a wuss.

I bent over Logan. He was trying to get to his feet but failing.

"Get up!" I yelled in his face.

"You could at least help, you know!" he said.

I pushed at his side and got him up. He ran back towards the spot where he had dropped his sword. I sprinted towards the back of the taxi again. He picked up his weapon and yelled at me.

"Think fast!"

I gasped.

"No!"

I was not going through this again.

I raised my hands to my face. The last I saw was the swords hurling towards me. I shut my eyes, feeling a sharp stinging in my palm. I screamed, opening my eyes. There was a big slice right on my palm. Blood dripped off on each corner.

"Look what you did!" I screamed at Logan.

"You _really _need to learn how to manage your ADHD." He said, running towards me.

"I'm _bleeding!_"

He turned to me. There was a huge gash on his face, blood pulsing out. I stepped back.

"Ew."

I wasn't sure why I even said that. It was just the first thing that came to mind. He rolled his eyes and reached for his other sword. I picked up the one he had thrown at me with my not-bleeding hand. It was heavy in my hands. Well, I wouldn't really know if it was heavy because I had never really held a real sword in my hand. I couldn't be sure if this was the standard weight or something.

"Um…" I said to him. "I think I'm better with a gun."

He gave me a straight face. I blushed, feeling stupid.

"Never mind." I said. "Ahem. We have monster to fight off?"

"Oh, right. I knew that." Logan replied.

He returned to trying to pull his sword out of the road. I sighed, shaking my head and walking over beside him.

"Hold this." I shoved the one he had given me against his chest. He stumbled back slightly.

I gripped the hilt of his sword and pulled it upwards. I pushed all my weight against it, the blood rushing out of my fingers. There was a crack, and the sword clattered out of my hands and onto the floor.

"Oh." Logan said. "Thanks."

He picked it up and handed back his other one to me. He gestured me to follow him. We ducked behind a stray rock.

"What _is _that anyway?" I asked, pointing at the taxi driver. Chiron was fighting him off with more arrows.

"Geryon." Logan whispered. "I thought he was dead…but I guess not…"

"How do we k—"

"We can't kill him." He said as if he read my mind. "Well, unless we…but he doesn't have it right now so we can't…Chiron might have…but how would have known that we would…well it's possible…I mean we could check his bags…I wouldn't know but…"

He kicked off the rock and pulled my elbow.

"H-Hey!" I jerked out of his grasp.

Logan opened the door of the cab and unzipped Chiron's bag. He rummaged through his stuff and finally brought out a single arrow. It was pure gold with green steam coming out the tip. It looked different compared to the rest of the arrows that he normally used. It looked a little bit more…dangerous.

"Logan, how did he get that past the airport security?"

"That's not important right now." He said, "Chiron! Think f—"

I slapped his cheek.

"Not everyone can think very fast!" I shouted.

He shrugged.

"And by everyone did you mean yourself?"

I slapped him again.

"Ow! Okay, okay fine."

He sprinted towards them and tossed the arrow towards Chiron. He caught it barely, the tip stinging him slightly as he aligned it with the bow. I ran towards both of them. Geryon was lunging for Chiron. Instantly, my senses acted up and I jumped between them. I pushed him against the ground. I grabbed the hilt of the sword and just kept stabbing it into his throat. I felt that uneasy feeling again. What was I doing? Holy crap. I felt like some mental escapee patient. I was killing someone. Something. It was just like what Will did to Portia.

I collapsed backwards, my will just giving up on me. My heart pounded, slowing. I rolled off and tried to catch my breath. Shit, I was crazy. I was crazy. Geryon stood up and towered over me. I closed my eyes. What else was there to do? In thirty seconds, I would be dead. I felt weak.

There was a clopping noise.

I looked up.

Chiron pulled the string of his bow back, narrowed his eyes, and let go. In a split-second, the arrow was embedded in Geryon's forehead. There was a small sizzling sound and green smoke erupted from the wound. Geryon turned a sickly shade of green before collapsing to the ground.

And right before my eyes, his bodies disintegrated along with his head. I keeled over. I couldn't think of anything else to say. I looked at the empty space on the ground; the wreck and bad excuse of a taxi; the cracks on the ground…

I didn't know what else I could say to fit this scene.

"Holy. Crap."

**Post Author notes:**

**PLEASE REVIEW! I love every kind of reviews (except for the mean, bitchy, unhelpful ones...) I really do appreciate constructive criticism. Don't just say, "It's really bad." Like, please tell me what else I'm going to have to improve on.**

**So I wrote this chapter because I just had to. I know that a freaking car ride isn't so important, but I just thought that I shouldn't just be so lucky. I mean, me/Nikki (we have the same name so what's the point in calling my character 'Nikki' when everything about her technically based on myself) _has _to be attacked, _some day_, right?**

**Okay. That's it for me. PLEASE REVIEW! I REALLY APPRECIATE IT. Thanks!**

**--- Nikki.**


	7. Dean Collins

**Author Notes: Okay, I'm really thinking about discontinuing this story. Lately, I've been getting no reviews so I'm not so sure about going through with it. I might just cut this short and move on instead. PLEASE REVIEW YOU GUYS. Reviews are the only things that keep me going. So I hope you like this chapter. It's pretty short and not as exciting but I promise I'll post the next one soon. Thanks! **

7

**Dean Collins.**

I was tired. First, after the attack, since none of us could really drive besides Chiron (who was stuck in his wheelchair), we had to walk our way to camp. It was only two miles away, I know. Then again, I was tired as hell, and I collapsed several times. And my bag wasn't making it any easier walking uphill. I cursed at myself for packing so much. I was forced to climb up the hill with a pine tree on top. In fact, I was so freaking tired I barely noticed the dragon and the golden sweater or something, hanging on one of the tree branches. But I did stop to look at it for a few seconds.

"It's a dragon." Logan said.

"Mph."

"It guards the camp."

"Good for the camp then."

We reached the top. It was five in the afternoon and the sun was already setting. The orange color of the sun mixed with the blue of the evening. To the right, there was a small lake. There was a nearby tree with two teenagers sitting under it. One was a boy with jet-black hair. The girl was resting her head on his shoulder; her blonde curls falling over her face in every direction. Ahead, there were a few volleyball courts and a stream beside a big farmhouse that separated it from a big strawberry field. Beside the courts was an Arts & Crafts section and a small lake behind it. I couldn't see any farther from that.

"We're here." Chiron said from behind. A tall shadow loomed over me so I guessed that he was in his pony form. He pushed open the doors of the big farmhouse and ushered us both inside.

Once I stepped inside, all I did was freeze. Like, really. Freeze. My jaw dropped and eyes widened. Everything was white. Everywhere I looked, it was white. It looked like those ancient buildings that you'd see in pictures of Rome or Greece. The structure was bigger on the inside than it looked like on the outside, obviously. The tall white posts supported each corner and light hung from the ceiling. There were scattered vines everywhere and a faint smell of wine.

"You're here." We were greeted—well it wasn't really a greeting—by a chubby man in a tiger-patterned top. He was in purple spandex tights and—as the band members and fan girls Panic! At The Disco would like to call it—mandals. Ew. No one, and I mean no one; can pull it off but Jon Walker. Even this guy, whoever he thought he was. Oh man, his fashion sense seriously sucked. If he could read my mind…

"Very funny." He interrupted my thoughts. "Though I _can _read your mind."

I swallowed and blushed. Whoops.

"Er…Mr. D, this is Nikki. Nikki, this is Mr. D."

"'Sup."

Logan elbowed me in the arm.

"You don't just say ''sup' to him."

"Well, what else do you want me to say? Greetings, Mr. D?"

Chiron nodded, taking two goblets and handing one to me, and another to Logan.

"Water." Logan murmured, sipping his cup afterwards.

I stared at the empty glass in my hands. I wasn't thirsty so I just held on to it blankly.

"You're old." Mr. D told me.

I stepped back, crossing my arms.

"Look who's talking?" I said.

"Nikki," Chiron said.

"What? Am I supposed to respect this guy now?"

The purple flame in Mr. D's eyes glowed a darker, more energetic color.

"Oh, what do the kids say? 'Shut up?'" Mr. D asked this goat-legged boy beside him.

"Um. Yes, sir."

"Well then, Norah. Shut up."

I glanced around for this Norah person. It took me a whole minute to realize that was talking to me.

"Actually it's—"

"What do the kids say? 'Whatever?'" Mr. D was asking the goat-boy again.

"Y-Yes sir."

"Well then, whatever." He drawled. I felt my ears turn hot. I had only been here for 5 minutes, and already, I couldn't stand being in the same room as this guy.

"And you." Mr. D pointed at Logan. "Linda, was it?"

I choked back a laugh. I mean, I was going to let the Norah thing pass. But Linda? Linda? J

"Logan, take her to the cabins." Chiron told him.

"Whose?"

"Apollo's. Oh, and, before I forget, please stop fighting."

"We're not fighting." We both said simultaneously, breaking in to a laugh afterwards. We walked away. I could almost feel the anger rush out of me as we were getting farther away from Mr. D.

W

"I knew your dad was Apollo." Logan told me once we were a good distance from the farmhouse. We had crossed the small stream/creek behind the farmhouse and were making our way past a booth that had armor on the walls.

"How'd you guess?" I asked.

"I don't know. You just kinda look like him."

"Is that a good thing?"

"I don't know. Probably. Yeah. I mean all the girls seem to think so."

"Why?"

"They think he's hot. I don't know."

We walked past an arena and I could see a few cabins in a U formation ahead. A little bit to the right, there were smaller cabins, forming a spiral. They looked newly built, and were beside a little creek. Logan stopped once we reached a golden cabin. I was almost blinded by the one beside it. It was silver, glowing as the moon shone down on it.

"Artemis." Logan said to me. "It's her cabin."

"Who stays there?" I asked, recalling that she was one of those virgin goddesses.

"The Hunters…Well, they're rarely here, but honestly, I think I like it better when they're away."

"Why?"

"Long story." He said, handing my bag to me. "But my half-sister's one of the hunters so I guess I can't completely hate them."

"Oh…uhm…Thanks again. You know, for carrying my stuff." I said.

"Sure." He replied, making his way to Cabin 1, the biggest, bulkiest, and most beautiful of the twelve.

W

I went over to my cabin, a sleek, golden one. It blinded me slightly as I climbed the stairs. The door was open and I could see several other people inside. I was about to get in when someone stepped in front of me.

"Apollo's?" he said.

The boy looked my age with turquoise eyes and blond hair. He was in an orange t-shirt like everyone else.

"What?"

"God of the sun, medicine, music, poetry, and prophecies?"

"I know who Apollo is, you know."

"So you're a daughter, then."

"What do you want?" I asked, trying not to get annoyed. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

"Well, I like to get to know the members of my team when we play Capture the Flag on Friday. And since you happen to be the only addition to the sun god's kids—" he stopped himself and smiled. "I'm Dean."

"Hi Dean." I stepped forward again but he stopped me.

"'Hi Dean. My name is…?'" he prodded me.

"Come on, Collins. Lay of the girls for a minute. She's new." A familiar voice said.

It was Will Solace. He was wearing an orange tank top and long, cut-off shorts. His green eyes sparkled in the moon.

Dean scowled and stepped back. "When Yew was counselor, he didn't shoo _me _away."

"Just get back to your cabin?"

Dean huffed, but backed off, making his way to the last cabin of the row.

"Nikki!" Will smiled welcomingly. "You're here. We've been waiting, you know."

When I looked around, all I saw was gold; the floor, the walls, the ceiling. It was scary how much there was of it. Whoever made this cabin must have been extremely rich to afford all of it. Everything was gleaming around me as Will led me inside to a cabin to the right. It was the second-to-the-last bed to the wall. I slung my bag off my shoulder and onto the mattress.

"Hi." One boy said to me. He was lying in the bed to my left. He was a ginger, with bright orange hair and a sprinkle of freckles across his nose. His blue eyes were big and warm.

"Hi." I replied, sitting down.

"So…where are you from?" he asked. I noticed the heavy accent he had. The way he spoke was like the way Gerard Way did.

"San Francisco."

"Oh, cool. So is Justin." The boy pointed to the boy in the bed to my right. Unluckily for him, he was the closest to the wall, unless he liked that of course.

I turned to "Justin." He was asleep, both arms over his eyes. He had black, disheveled hair and was in the same orange t-shirt that the redheaded boy was in. Actually, it wasn't just that guy. Everyone around me was in that shirt. Now that I thought about it, Logan was in the same one. I wondered if I would have to wear one too.

"Here." Will handed me a bundle of orange shirts, strapped together by a thin rope. Great.

"Thanks," I muttered, taking it from him. He gave me one last smile before leaving the cabin.

"Yeah. It sucks wearing these things." The redhead said to me.

I turned to him and started examining the clothes.

"Obviously."

"What did you say your name was again?" he asked.

"I didn't." I smiled. "But I'm Nikki."

The boy smiled too. "Nate Burlap. From New Jersey."

"So…that's Justin?" I referred to the sleeping guy beside me.

"Yeah. So, how old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Oh. I'm fourteen. Wow, you came late."

"What was that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. It's just…I came to camp three years ago. No one ever comes here after thirteen."

"Why?"

"Just…cause. I don't really know. I started a few years ago. I dunno."

He touched a beaded necklace tied around his neck. I didn't really know what to say next so I just turned my attention to the beads.

"So, where did you get these from?" I asked.

He untied the necklace and gave it to me. There were five beads, each of them hand painted. The first had a fruit, the next had a flower, the other one had a tree, another had a sword, and the last had some kind of animal on it.

"Cool." I said.

"Thanks. You get one every year."

"So you've been here for five years, then?"

"Uh-huh."

Awkward pause.

Nate didn't seem to notice though. His eyes suddenly clouded as he continued to stare at his necklace. I cleared my throat to wash away the silence.

"Uh. I'm gonna…"

I gestured towards my bed, swallowing. This kid was younger than me, and he was making me nervous. I REPEAT: I AM SUCH A WUSS.

"Oh yeah, sure." He had snapped out of his train thought. I could almost feel that thought bubble popping right above his head.

I lay down on my bed, closing my eyes. Something about the heat of everyone inside the cabin lulled me to sleep. I didn't know if it was the weird fire that I felt in my chest, or the feeling that I had a real family.

"Shhh! She's waking up!"

"We're _supposed _to wake her up!"

"Oh. Right. It's Nikki, I think. San Francisco."

"Hah. Me too."

"She knows."

"You didn't tell too much about me, again…_did you?_"

I rolled to the side, groaning.

"Shut…up…" I managed to croak.

I opened my eyes, two figures looking over me starting to come clear. I squinted and yawned.

"Good morning." A familiar face said. It was Nate Burlap, the redhead. His face was only inches above mine. His hair glowed orange over his freckled cheeks. Something told me he was lying and that it was still the evening. Beside him was a black-haired boy with blue eyes. They both had the same smile on their face.

"Hi." The boy said. "I'm Justin."

He stretched his arm out and helped me up.

"Nikki," I rubbed my eyes as he hoisted me to his feet. "How long was I out?"

I looked around to see that the golden cabin was empty except for us three.

"An hour or so." Nate answered. "It's dinner. Chiron told us to wake you."

I followed them outside. There was a pit at the center of the cabins that I didn't notice earlier. We walked over to the far end of the cabins, at the curve of the U and slipped between two. On the other side was a mess hall a few feet away and hundreds of kids sitting at the tables.

"Dinner." Nate clapped his hands happily.

"Finally." Justin nodded in agreement.

When we reached the middle of the mess, Nate turned to me. I followed them towards a table adjacent to one with Will sitting on it. The table we sat in was packed, but at least it wasn't as full as the other one. Everyone was served the food: braised beef, mashed potatoes with gravy, baby carrots, celery, and a glass. I picked up the empty goblet.

"Uh…"

"Say something." A girl beside me said.

"Hi?"

She rolled her eyes, but smiled. "I mean, say something you want. A drink."

"Vodka." I joked.

She gave me a straight face.

"Kidding. Fine." I said, "Coke."

Before my eyes, the glass magically filled with the brown, fizzy liquid. My jaw dropped.

"Holy cr…"

She smiled. "I'm Julia."

"Nikki."

"Cool, huh?" she said. "Yeah. That's what I thought the first time I was here."

"Why are we so many?" I asked.

"Well, I guess dad can't pick just one girl." She replied.

"Oh."

Again, my head filled up with anger. My dad was a freaking playboy. I was wasting my time thinking that he even cared about me.

"Don't worry." Julia said. "Hermes and Athena are a lot too."

"It's not that." I said. "He didn't even say…"

I decided to stop talking, and just smile sheepishly.

"Um. Turns out, I don't want Coke."

I tossed the liquid out the glass and watched it splatter on the grass. Julia blinked, clearing her throat.

A conch shell sounded. It was kind of weird hearing a conch shell. I mean I had never really heard it myself. I remembered hearing one in Spongebob…except it was some kind of Magic Conch.

Hah. Snippets of that episode played in my mind.

**_Spongebob: _**_Magic Conch! What should we do next?_

_ **Magic Conch: **Nothing._

_ ***Spongebob and Patrick proceed to sit down on floor and do nothing*******_

I blinked, snapping out of it.

Everyone rose and made their way to a fire pit in the center. Logan was first. He threw a piece of his beef into the fire and walked back to his table. Next was the black-haired boy I had seen under the tree earlier. And so on.

All of the campers threw in a portion of their food into the pit and murmured something. I thought this was pretty stupid. I mean all these kids were burning their food. BURNING THEIR FREAKING FOOD.

"To Apollo." I heard Justin say.

"To Apollo…?" I repeated, tossing in a beef.

Once the meat fell into the fire, I smelled the best thing in my life; chocolate-chip cookies, hot chocolate, bubblegum, brownies, pizza…

Someone pushed me aside and I made my way back to the table.

"Did you smell that?" I asked Nate.

"Amazing, isn't it?" he said.

I nodded, smiling.

I realized how nice his eyes were. I mean, I knew he was my half-brother and he was younger and all, but still. They were just so freaking familiar, I couldn't help but feel like I've seen them somewhere. In a dream maybe. And his smile. God, I sounded like I was in love with him—I wasn't—but I knew I saw him somewhere.

"Are you okay?" Justin started waving a hand over my face.

I jumped back and blinked. "What…"

"You spaced out." He informed me. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I said. "I'm fine."

Justin smiled and it hit me again. He had the same smile that Nate did. And Nate, he had Will's smile. And Will had…

"Are you gonna eat that?" Julia asked. She pointed at the mashed potatoes.

"Oh, you can have it." I pushed my plate towards her and washed her scoop and handful onto her plate.

After dinner, all the campers headed for the bonfire at the center of the cabins. Being Apollo's daughter, I was forced to lead the sing-a-long with my half-siblings. At first, I was just mouthing "watermelon" again and again, but soon, I got into it as we sang about gods and music.

When I fell asleep that night, I thought about my dad again. I thought about how many things he did that I shouldn't be happy about. I had all these hundreds of siblings. He left me after my mom died. I was crap to him. I should hate him. He practically abandoned me when she was gone.

I shouldn't want to see him.

But God, I really did.


	8. Haters Gonna Hate

**Author Notes: Guys, please review! I've been getting like 2 reviews a chapter which totally sucks since I've been getting like 2000 hits. I feel like 2000 people aren't interested anymore. :( I'm so sorry for not updating so much. Someone just died in my family and I've been going to their funeral for the past 3 days. Okay, I love you guys! Enjoy! :D**

8

**Haters Gonna Hate.**

It was official. Girls hated me. I was like some repelling creep. I mean, at first I had tried to be nice and sweet and perfect, which was totally not me. I tried to control the sudden outbursts. I tried not breaking into a song when I felt like it. They just seriously hated me. God, the only girl I knew that didn't hate me was Julia, and she was my sister so it completely didn't count. I didn't have any friends. No one was like me. I would bring up a topic, and they wouldn't know what the hell, or in their term—in "Hades' name"—I was talking about. I sat in my cabin alone sometimes, just listening to music. Sometimes, I pulled some pranks with Justin on Nate. But still, I couldn't stand the feeling when someone just…I don't know. I was used to being hated. I just didn't like being hated for no reason. I had enough haters in my life back home. I didn't need any more from camp.

Was it just me, or was I suddenly less loved?

My first few days were spent alone. Sometimes, I'd run into Dean. He would just flash me his stupid smile and walk away. It occurred to me that he actually still didn't know my name. I trained with Julia sometimes, but we didn't really have some sort of connection. I mean I knew that we were half-sisters and all, but we had nothing in common. She had short curly hair, and was severely tanned. She had blue eyes and weighed at least seventy pounds more than I did. She ate everything that anyone didn't, and she fought like a warrior. She had determination in her eyes, and I could tell that she wasn't the type that you'd want to mess with. I was pretty sure she could tell that we really couldn't relate at all, so we barely spoke. The only words we said to each other were, "Good morning" when we woke up and, "Good night" when it was time to hit the bunks.

Since I was a new camper, I wasn't really required to jump into the regular activities yet. I was still learning the ropes and how people did things at camp. This was a pretty good thing. I hated being shoved into things that I didn't want to do. But what I also hated was really not having any friends. When I was alone, I just sensed my social life plummeting down. I felt weird and exposed. I walked alone. I sat alone. I even tried to _read_…alone. My evening went by slowly. I would eat, explore, eat, and sleep. I went on for two days exactly. I know it doesn't sound very long. But after that night that I arrived, I really didn't know what I was supposed to do next. I tried to go with the flow, but the flow just suddenly got complicated. It was tiring, and hard, and could not be handled. Those two days were hell to me. I couldn't sleep so I had to live through the whole 24-hours of the day. I thought I was going crazy. This camp had that effect on me. You never come back normal. Camp Half Blood was slowly turning me into an insomniac.

Of course, that was before I met Jack Bassam.

He had black hair with fading blonde highlights on his bangs. His eyes were a dark violet. They weren't cold or warm. They were just blank as if nothing was going on in his head. He was an open book. Just looking at him made you feel like you knew everything about him. He played guitar. He was in a band. He had hairy legs (I don't even know how I got that from his eyes) and he loved music. He was just like me (minus the hairy legs part). He flipped everyone off when he felt like it. No seriously. He wasn't the type to shoot out some witty comeback, or pick a fight. He would just give you the finger and walk away.

This was too amazing. It scared me. We only had the slightest differences. Like, he was open to R & B music, while I wasn't. I liked Indie. He didn't. He wanted a tattoo in his arm. I wanted one on the back of my neck. He had blond highlights. I wanted blue ones (But trust me, I don't have highlights). He was from the Dionysus cabin. I was from Apollo. He had a twin brother. I had no one. His eyes were purple, and mine were a stupid hazel. Lame. How did I get these eyes? Everyone in my cabin had either green, or blue. Jack spoke less, and was less of a spazz. And then there was the fact that he was a boy, and I was a girl. Other than that, I really couldn't think of a huge difference between us.

I met Jack in probably the most unlikely way. Well, it wasn't really unlikely or something. I just thought he was someone else. I just felt the need to strangle someone. Anyone. I didn't care. I just needed some person that I didn't know and wouldn't take it against me in the future. Well, that person happened to be Jack. I don't know. He was wearing a black hoodie over his regular Camp Half Blood shirt. It was the first thing I saw besides orange so I grabbed him at the collar and screamed in his face.

"EVERYONE HATES ME!"

I had him pinned down on the grass. There was that boiling sensation in my blood that, for some reason, hadn't left even though I had executed my plan perfectly. The thing is that I was going to scream in someone's face and walk away. The weird thing was, Jack seemed unfazed, and buckled his legs just as I pushed him.

He blinked his violet eyes, his face just centimeters from mine. He just furrowed his brows and frowned.

"Oh."

I swallowed, realizing what I just did. Oh my God. I felt so stupid. Maybe I was starting to repel boys too. This really was not working out for me.

"Sorry." I muttered, letting go of his jacket and rolling off him. I lay flat on the grass beside him.

He cleared his throat and stuck his hand out. I shook it, both of us not really saying anything for a few seconds.

"You've got a pretty good grip." He finally spoke.

I smirked, turning to him with a smile.

"Thanks. I think."

We had that unsettling silence. Well, at least I had. Jack had taken a sudden interest in his hands.

"So," I said. "I'm just gonna go and…"

"WHOA!" he suddenly cried out. I raised an eyebrow. "Look what I can do!"

He had made an OK sign with both his hands and twisted his wrist backwards. He brought them to his chin. His thumbs and index fingers went over his eyes and covered his cheeks so it looked like some kind of butterfly was on his face.

"I'm Spiderman." He said.

I didn't know why, but I broke into a huge laugh. I wouldn't normally do that. He was probably the most entertaining thing here. He smiled, obviously proud that he got someone laughing.

"Who are you?" he asked.

I drew in a breath after gaining back my composure.

"Blackinton." I said. "Nikki."

"Bassam." He nodded. "Jack."

I was lying on my back on the grass with Jack Bassam, with all the trees towering over us. The leaves were letting some of the sunlight escape between them and the branches brushed against each other, swaying smoothly from the gushes of wind coming from the east.

And from that moment on, I had the time of my life in Camp Half Blood.

**PS: I ripped Jack Bassam from Jack Barakat of All Time Low so don't report me or something. ;D**


	9. Bad Reputation

**Author Notes: Yeah! I'm all about updating really quickly right now. Read. Review. Thanks! ENJOY!**

9

**Bad Reputation.**

Jack was not a good person.

He had the most insane ideas. In three days, he had become my first and only real friend at camp. I didn't know how I had become so close to someone so fast. Was it because we slept after curfew? We would talk for hours inside the Apollo cabin, while everyone was out training. We snuck into the Mess Hall for food, only ten minutes after lunch because we thought that we would die of an ulcer or a heart attack if our blood sugar got too low. We slept at the latest hour, and woke up at the earliest. Usually, we spent that time talking or just plain messing around; doing things that kids our age should have grown out of already.

He wasn't the athletic type, just like me. That meant that he barely ever trained. He sat out a lot of the activities, except for Capture the Flag. It was a free pass to hurt people. Who could resist? Being the son of Dionysus, he knew more secrets about the camp than regular campers did. Luckily, I was his friend now. I wasn't just a regular camper.

He was awesome and that was undeniable. He did the craziest things. I remember him wearing a Camp Half Blood t-shirt. Under it, there was a messy handwriting. After about ten minutes of my staring at the text, I finally deciphered it. There was the usual print of the words camp half-blood in white. Under it, Jack had scribbled in black paint: IS FOR GAYS. I burst out laughing once I had finally read it. It became an occasional inside joke. CAMP HALF-BLOOD IS FOR GAYS. That was also pretty stupid of him because he went to the camp just like everyone else.

He was obnoxious in everyway and no one I knew could ever surpass his level of insanity. Sometimes, he just completely reverted into some other person. One minute, he's Jack Bassam, the next he's Richard Simmons, sometimes he was even Katy Perry. He was anything he wanted to be, really.

He was never the deep type. He never talked about his feelings, and neither did he ever show them (unless of course it was killing him, then he broke down in tears for a while and would be laughing about it in the next second). He was unstable, and not exactly easy to catch up with.

One of the things that we brought up in our conversations was movies. We talked about what we watched, ones that we wanted to watch, our favorite scenes, then proceed to acting them out in the accents that the actors had.

Once, we talked about Fight Club. It was an amazing movie, and Brad Pitt looked pretty good there. Of all the things in that movie, what I remembered was that pink bar of soap that had the letters, FIGHT CLUB engraved on it. That was when we decided to pull some stupid prank on the Aphrodite cabin. We gathered bars of soap and snuck them into my cabin when we were alone. Don't even _ask _where we got the soap. It was a hard and complicated negotiation with Argus. We told him that Jack had some 24-hour disease and the only way he would be able to survive was to live on soap for the next day. Argus didn't speak much. He just blinked his eyes around his body and grumbled. We took that as a yes. Once we were alone in the Apollo cabin (everyone else was practicing or training), we took out our knives and started carving the soap. At first it was easy. It only took Jack and I fifteen minutes to shape one bar of soap into a heart. Next came the hard part.

"We have to abort it." I said to him. "This mission's over."

"No! We can't! Don't you remember how much sweat and hard work we put into this? Remember how _long _it took to devise this plan?" he asked me desperately.

I raised my eyebrow and crossed my arms. "Er…five minutes? I was there, you know?"

He grabbed my shoulders and tackled me to the floor. I laughed, attacking him. I knew Jack. When he was at a loss for words, he just randomly attacked people. I kicked him off and shoved him away.

"Fine, fine." I finally said. "But how are we gonna write down the letters? We're both dyslexic and can't read."

Jack's face suddenly brightened. I could have sworn that I saw a light bulb pop over his head.

"I got it. We'll just have to find him."

W

We exited my cabin and headed for his. It was cabin number twelve. It was old and rundown with grapevines coiling around every corner. When we had reached the front door, a chubby guy appeared. I wondered if this was Jack's twin brother. I had never met him and Jack never really mentioned him. I noticed that this chubby kid had the same purple flame in his eyes.

"Hey Pollux." Jack said to him.

"Hey."

"Is he inside?" Jack asked.

"Yeah. He's asleep again, though."

"Of course."

Pollux nodded at me with an unsure smile, then jogged away.

"ALEXANDER WILLIAMS!" Jack's voice boomed inside their cabin. His voiced bounced off the walls and echoed around. It was dark inside, with barely any lights. It was a sad sight, really. The only things unique about it were the wilting grapevines around the walls. Let me repeat. WILTING.

"Alexander!" Jack sang.

I heard a muffle groan come from the edge of the cabin. I followed Jack to the bunk bed near the wall. There was a boy curled up into a fetal position. He was wrapped inside this neon green blanket that hurt my eyes just looking at it. It was probably the only colorful thing in the room.

"Alex!"

Jack swung his leg to kick the boy. That did the trick. The boy jumped up yelling. I just watched as he managed to spring out of his sleeping position and fall to the floor headfirst. I stared at his frame sprawled across the floor. He didn't have a shirt on and was wearing blue pajama pants. After two minutes, I decided to poke him because he stopped moving.

"Hello?" I said.

"Dude, get up. We have a girl in the room."

The boy quickly collected himself and stood up, tripping over his feet in the process.

"Nikki, meet my twin brother, Alex." Jack said.

I waved at him.

"Hi." Alex said with his own smile.

I smiled back, and for some reason, a giggle escaped my lips. I concluded that it was probably because Alex was shirtless.

Alex blushed, realizing it and did his best to cover himself up with a small pillow. He didn't look very much like Jack. Jack's face was longer, and his body was thinner. Alex was a few inches shorter than Jack, but had broader shoulders. He had natural honey brown hair and—of course—the patented violet eyes.

After Jack introduced us to each other, he decided to get to the point.

"Dude, we need your help." Jack said.

"Again? What's it for? To get another girl?" Alex mused.

"Ha-ha. No. We need you to write something for us."

"Write." Alex repeated, shifting his feet.

"Yep." Jack confirmed. "On soap, no less."

"Gods, what the hell are you guys up to?" Alex asked. He was looking at Jack mostly. I was not surprised.

"A joke." Jack said. "Come on. Seriously. We need you."

Alex pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes at his brother.

"I don't know…"

"We're serious." I said. "We do."

Alex turned to me. The expression on his face looked it like he was just seeing me for the first time.

"Um. Well. I guess I could…"

"YEAH!"

Jack gave me a high-five and laughed.

W

We waited for Alex to get dressed outside the cabin. I used this time with Jack to get some info on his brother.

"So," I said. "Why do we need Alex for this job?"

Jack's face blanked for a second. His smile turned upside down.

"It's complicated. Turns out, mom didn't really want two kids. She kept me, and gave Alex away. Some rich family adopted him. They had the money so that paid for his dyslexia classes. I was stuck with a drunk for a mom."

I swallowed. This was the first personal thing Jack had ever really told me. I gave myself a point for it. Getting someone to do something they don't normally do was one of the things I do best. Well, at least for the moment.

Alex emerged from the cabin in a clean orange camp shirt and jeans. We led him inside the Apollo cabin and handed him the heart-shaped bar of soap. Jack and I just sat on the floor, watching Alex write down exactly what we had told him to write. At least, that's what I thought. I wouldn't know. I had no idea how he was even doing it. Then again, he was still dyslexic so it took him three hours to finally finish. By then, it was five in the afternoon and it was almost shower time.

Since I was the only girl from the three of us, I was sent to sneak it in. The Aphrodite girls took their showers first because of some stupid request they had made. That meant I had to act fast. It was an easy job. I placed the bar of some neatly by the windowsill of their cabin, and ran back to mine as fast as I could. In five minutes, all of the Aphrodite campers were fighting over it. It was pretty funny watching them strangle each other just for that.

Do you know what that bar of soap read?

Here are the exact words:

THIS IS A MAGICAL BAR OF SOAP. WHOEVER WASHES HER FACE WITH IT WILL BECOME THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ONE IN ALL OF AMERICA.

For girly girls, they sure knew how to fight. There were catfights, and hair pulling. Heels were flying everywhere and Greek curses could be heard from every cabin.

"Thank you." I told Alex later. "Seriously. We would never have been able to pull this off without you."

"It was nothing." He scratched the back of his neck. "Anyone could've done it."

"Yeah, right." I said. "Admit it. You're good."

"Well, thank you, then." He said. He smiled shyly at me before returning to the Dionysus cabin.

Eventually, the Aphrodite girls found out that it was a trick. Lucky for us, they quickly concluded that it was the Stoll brothers' fault. They put some kind of curse on the whole Hermes cabin. All the campers (even the boys) got perms and permanent lipstick that wouldn't come off for seven whole hours.

W

Another thing I loved about Jack: he did anything he wanted. Illegal or not, he did it. It was part of the rules and regulations. A camper from another cabin was not allowed inside another god's cabin after nine o'clock.

See, Jack wasn't the type to come at ten just because it's an hour after nine. Jack was the type that snuck into your cabin at three in the morning just to talk.

It was the evening of the day that we met. On that morning at 11:02 that I had tackled him to the ground, we just started talking after that. We were both too lazy to actually stand up from the grass so we just talked and talked. Then talking turned into stupid jokes, and singing, and just plain laughs drowning out everything else. We even tried to make a handshake but after three minutes of thinking about the first move, we gave up and decided that handshakes were stupid and only uncool retards (unlike us who were _very _cool retards) used.

I don't know. Something about the two of us just _clicked. _Meeting him was like some amazing sign that I should stop sitting around thinking that everyone hates me. It totally worked. One little coincidence of meeting Jack Bassam pretty much fixed everything up.

But back to that night…see, Jack wasn't exactly the _smartest _one at camp. Actually, he wasn't by a long shot, but he wasn't dumb. He just never saw the point in trying. I completely understood so I didn't question any of it.

Here's what happened:

I was fast asleep. It had to be at least three a.m. and I was having a nightmare about Marilyn Manson strapping me to this wooden chair, taking out a kitchen knife, and giving me a Chelsea smile.

I remember crying, my chest feeling like I was going to explode. I was still very much alive when he ripped the duct tape off my lips and pushed the knife into my mouth. I cried, knowing there was no escape to this. I was shaking and sweating as he ever so _slowly _pulled that knife to both sides, ripping open the sk—

"Nikki."

I gasped, air filling my lungs. My heartbeat raced and pumped against my rib cage. Jack was kneeling beside my bunk, his hand covering my mouth. I tried to calm down and keep my composure. It was just Jack. Oh thank God. It was just him. He stood up slowly, sitting down on my bed.

I moved forward, hugging him tightly.

"You're not Marilyn, are you?"

I felt his hands hug me back, squeezing me against him even if he didn't even know why.

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm not." He said, pulling back. He had his half-smile on his face.

His hands were on my shoulders, when I realized what I was wearing. God, I didn't even have a bra under my Jabbawockeez tank top. I really didn't mind since it was dark and he probably couldn't tell.

"What are you doing here?" I finally asked after two minutes of just looking at each other.

"Oh, right, sorry." Jack finally took his eyes off mine. "I need your help."

I tucked my bangs behind my ear and uselessly combed my hair with my fingers, trying to look presentable. I had only known him for at least 18 hours or more so I was still worried about him seeing me like this for the first time. He would have to get used to me looking like a mess though if he wanted to keep up and be friends.

"What do you need?" I asked.

"Help."

He raised his left foot up. I wasn't the least bit surprised. He had his shield glued to his shoe. Seriously. How did that even happen? And how did he even manage not to wake up anyone inside my cabin when he walked? I would find out later that that was one of Jack's many talents. He could be as stealthy as ever when he tried really hard.

I shrugged, just staring at his shoe. What did he want me to do? Get if off? Yes, duh, Nikki. What else?

"Please. Get it off. I don't even know how that happened." Jack said only seconds after I thought about it.

"Um, okay." I said. "But why don't we take it outside? We might wake someone up."

Jack nodded, skipping with one foot out the open door. I quickly grabbed my gray cardigan and changed out of my stupid pajama pants and into shorts. I caught up with him later, sitting on the porch of my cabin uselessly.

"How did you even manage to do this?" I asked later.

"I don't even know."

Jack had one arm slung over my shoulder as I helped him towards somewhere far; somewhere where no one would wake up or ever find us: the strawberry fields.

I think I liked the place so much because of the name, not the fruits. I loved The Beatles and whenever I set foot in this place, I thought of their song, "Strawberry Fields Forever".

Jack collapsed on a bed of various flowers.

"Take your shoe off." I commanded him.

He pulled at his shoe, grunting.

"It's stuck."

My shoulders dropped. Seriously? Stuck? Seriously? I sat in front of him and yanked his shoe off. There was a rip. It was his sock, which was _also _glued to the shoe.

"Dumb fuck…" I muttered, trying to separate the shield from the shoe. It wasn't working of course.

It was only after a half hour of my trying that Jack told me that it was his brother, Alex's shoe.

Seriously?

Alex's shoe? No kidding. I had to stop expecting anything good from him.

"He'll kill me if he found out that I took his shoe."

"Why'd you take his shoe?" I asked, suddenly annoyed with him.

"Because." He said as if it were pretty obvious. "They're Italian."

I rolled my eyes, and exhaled.

"Yeah, and they're like two sizes _smaller _than yours!"

"Well _so-rry _for not looking for the sizes." He crossed his arms. "Oh and by the way, that's Alex's shield too."

I shook my head, not surprised. I didn't even know why they were glued to each other. I suddenly didn't care. I just wanted to get this over with so I can get back to sleep.

I glanced up at the sky. It was still dark, but I could feel the morning air slowly coming in. It was 4:17. It was just one of those things that I knew.

After another thirty minutes of trying, we decided that there was nothing to do, so we just threw the shoe with the shield stuck on it in the Long Island Sound.

"Thanks." Jack said later on. He had one sock on and another was ripped up. I still had no idea what happened.

"Don't mention it." I said. "I didn't really do much."

"You tried enough to earn a thank you, so thank you."

He grinned at me as we stopped in front of my cabin. My eyes were still heavy and my body was all tired.

"Good night, Bassam."

"Good night, Blackinton."

So I guess one good thing came out of that night. Jack woke me up before the worst part of my scarring nightmare came. I did not want to be haunted for life by that dream.

Another thing came out of it though. I wasn't sure if it was good or not.

Jack woke me up at three o'clock every night and just talk for a whole hour. He'd give me two hours of sleep before waking me up at six just to talk again. At first I was seriously pissed and annoyed that he was disrupting my sleeping habits, but I learned to like it. He kept back my insomnia but showed me the amazing things about it too.

See, this is the amazing part with being friends with the two of them. You can have all the fun you want; cause all the trouble you want; make as much noise as you pleased. Mr. D would never punish his own children. Jack, Alex, and well, Pollux, were probably the most important things in the world for him. He would never hurt them. It was just one of those coincidental advantages.

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	10. Teasing To Please

**Author Notes: Updating again! Please review! :D**

10

Teasing To Please.

For some reason, just the mere fact at being at camp made me tired. I was sleepy all the time, even in the morning. I was exhausted and never really had the life to participate in any of the activities. And when I did, I usually just gave it up after ten minutes. I mean I knew who I was. I wasn't a quitter. I didn't just throw things away like that. No. Sure, I wasn't the type to stick to something long-term, but this camp just was draining the energy out of me. Just watching all these kids train, and get hurt, and work their asses of to do better, just made me feel like I was actually doing what they were doing. I was only here a week and my body was already giving up on me.

I ran—well, more of crawled (long story. I got tired after 3 minutes of walking and resulted in crawling the rest of the way) over to the archery range where all the other Apollo campers were. They were all picking up bows and bundles of arrows.

"Here." A younger boy handed me a bow, then continued to distribute to the others. "Oh and be careful, the arrows are celestial bronze."

I stared at the weapon in my hand. This wasn't my first time to try archery. I had done it once with a couple of my friends. The bow was big and unsteady in my hand. It was large, wooden and heavy. It just didn't feel right as I held it. One side felt huge and was weighing down the whole thing.

I didn't argue. I picked up and inserted an arrow, raised it up and pulled the string backwards. The target was lined with my eye. Still, the bow didn't feel like it was the one I should be using. I probably needed a lighter one. The things that amazed me the most were the arrows. They were thin and heavy, the tip: sharp and triangular. Was this what they called celestial bronze?

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder and one on my elbow.

"Here, let me help you."

I stole a glance at the person holding me into position. It was a boy with blonde hair, bright turquoise eyes and scatter of freckles around his nose and cheeks. It was none other than Dean Collins. Of course.

I jerked him off.

"I know how to do this." I snapped.

"I do too." Dean replied.

"I'm way better…I'm the daughter of the god of archery…and what are you doing here anyway?"

"Doing my friend a favor."

"I am _not _your friend." I said.

"You're about to be."

"Go away."

"Come on, why do you hate me so much?" he asked.

"I don't. You just piss me off really quickly." I answered him.

"Why?"

"You're too cocky for your own good." I said.

"Am not! I tease to please."

"It's not pleasing anybody."

He rolled his eyes and smiled. The sun got beamed overhead and beat down against my head. My shoulders hardened and I felt stronger. The bow suddenly didn't seem so heavy in my grip.

"Oh just let me help." Dean insisted.

"I'm doing just fine!" I pushed him off as he tried to straighten my shoulders.

"I can make you do better than just fine."

"I'm not really aiming for perfect."

Before I knew it, I socked him in the face and Dean let go of me, stumbling back with the arrow shooting off.

"γαμώ το!"

"Logan! You didn't just _say _that!" some girl scolded.

"I just got shot in my fucking arm!" Logan yelled.

I could see him in the far side of the property. He was jumping up and down yelling foreign curses everywhere. Dean's jaw dropped.

"Oh my gods…Bull's eye!" he celebrated.

"What? Dean! I just shot him!" I screamed.

"Nah. Owens'll get over it."

Judging by the way he was talking about Logan, I concluded they were friends, or at least close enough for him not to mind. Or probably they hated each other.

"Dean, I just shot Logan. Oh my God. I'm gonna get kicked out of camp on my first week." I panicked. "I'm dead. I'm so dead. Tom will ground me. Oh wait. Never mind that. I'm gonna go to juvie!"

"Dude…Breathe." Dean said. "Everyone gets hurt here."

"Not accidentally!"

"Well, yeah. We're usually in battle but…it's okay."

"OKAY? You think this is _okay?_"

Dean frowned then nodded. Why wasn't he freaking out? I felt guilty and embarrassed, and all he did was nodded, shrug his shoulders occasionally, and smirk.

"You're a demigod now. Get used to it."

He patted my shoulder and that oddly did the trick. I calmed down and stared at the bow in my hands. I shook my head and bit my lip. I wondered how he did that. I felt the real me settling in.

"By the way," Dean said. "I never got your name."

"Oh, right. I'm Nikki."

Dean grinned, squeezing my hand and taking a few steps back.

"See you around, Nikki." He waved then ran off to join the Hermes campers.

I smiled and shook my head.

A camp with a free pass to hit anyone?

I think I was going to like Camp Half-Blood.

After archery practice, I went to the mess hall for a glass of water. I found Dean there too, just hanging around.

"Hey." He said to me. "Gonna go to the infirmary. Wanna come?"

"Why?"

"Oh come on, I was right there when you shot Logan in the arm."

"Correction, _you_ shot Logan in the arm. And aw…you care?" I made a cutesy tone with my voice, one that I rarely use unless I talk to boys like Dean when they were being mushy.

"N-No!" he stammered, stumbling back. "I just…well, since it's partly my fault, I guess th—"

"Hah! So you admit it _was _your fault!"

"No! I don't admit to anything. I'm just saying that it wasn't _completely _your fault."

"And that it was partly yours." I nodded. "Okay."

Dean dropped the subject and sighed.

"Let's just go?"

W

We walked our way to the big farmhouse. As we approached, I took a random glance at the top window. There was a neon-green light, barely escaping the curtains. It wasn't my first time in here and I was actually nervous. I didn't know why. It was just some unnerving feeling. I felt like something…_someone_…powerful was here.

The threshold was bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. Lamps hung from the ceiling and the windows were shut tight. Everything was painted white with ancient pillars supporting the structure. Funny. From the outside, I almost concluded that it would all be wooden.

"Follow me." Dean said, heading in another direction.

I trailed behind him as he pushed open two swinging doors.

Logan was sitting in a chair, watching a thin, greenish-colored girl wrap his arm. What were they called again? Wood-nymphs?

"Hey." Dean said. "You okay, man?"

Logan looked up. It still scared me how blue his eyes were. They looked like deep pools of dark water.

"Oh, hey. Yeah, I'm fine. Some _bastard _shot me with an arrow. Gods, it hurt like _hell._"

I blushed and Dean smirked. "Yeah. You scream fuck pretty loud."

_Oh, so _**that's **_what he was screaming about,_ I thought.

"Probably one of the Aphrodite kids. They were never good at archery." Logan shook his head. "Oh…um…hey Nikki." He said as if he just noticed my presence now.

I smiled. "Hey."

It was the first time we had spoken since I had arrived at camp. It was weird, actually. I felt like I was meeting him for the first time.

"I haven't seen you in a while. Did you see what happened?" Logan asked. "Gods, celestial bronze hurts."

"I'm so sorry…" I said softly.

"Don't be." Logan smiled. "It's not your fault."

I forced on a smile. "Right."

"_Actually_…_"_ Dean said in a deeper voice, "The one who shot you…well…it was—"

"Dean!" I cut in. "It was Dean."

"ME?" he exclaimed. "I thought we were going to _share _the blame."

"As if! I could just sense it. You were about to say my name."

Dean narrowed his eyes at me. "Oh you're good."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up." Logan said. "You guys…did this?"

He sounded more shocked than angry, at least, from my view. Well, you shouldn't trust my hearing. I was never a good listener anyway.

"It was an accident!" Dean blurted.

"No! It wasn't! It was—"

"It was all her—"

"His fault! I was—"

"Her fault! I was—"

"Doing fine before—"

"Just offering some help—"

"He came to _'help' _me—"

"HEY!" Logan yelled.

We were both quiet.

I pursed my lips.

"He started it."

"Did not!"

"Guys!" Logan yelled again. "It's okay. Just breathe for a second, will you?"

I blinked. "You're not mad?"

"Well, sure. It hurt. But I mean, worse could've happened, right?"

"Uh. Right." I said unsurely.

Worse stuff could have happened? What's worse than this? Getting shot in the eye? Crap. People here must have a _very _high tolerance for pain.

Logan was being too nice. Normal people don't do that…or at least, _I _woudn't. I'd probably be ripping your hair out if you had done what I did to him.

"Hi Logan." A different voice joined the conversation.

We all looked back.

"Hi Bianca." Logan replied smiling.

In front of us was a thin brown-haired girl. She had soft, sad blue eyes. She had fair skin and a small smile on her mouth. She was wearing a simple white dress and a blue headband. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up. _This girl _was allowed to wear a dress, and I was stuck in an ugly orange one? God, it had to have something to do with my status here.

Once Logan said her name, she blushed.

"I heard you got hurt." She said. "What happened?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Dean and Nikki just—"

I shot him a glare. I didn't even know this girl and I seriously wanted a good impression. It wasn't going to help if Logan told her that I just shot him in the arm.

"N-Nikki and Dean…j-just was…er…with me…when I fell." He stuttered.

"I thought an arrow was shot in your arm."

"Oh…uh…" Logan was still staring at me. His cheeks had turned pink. "Actually, I...uh…tripped…and landed on an arrow. Yes, that's it. That's what happened."

"Oh. I hope you're okay."

"He's fine." Dean interrupted. "Really. He's fine."

"Um…okay. Bye Logan. Be careful next time." She said, smiling before leaving the room.

Dean twitched but put on a steely smile.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"She's Bianca." Logan answered.

"Aphrodite's girl. She's probably the only one who isn't a total ditz in their cabin." Dean said.

"She's kinda pretty." I remarked.

"The prettiest." The boys said at the same time.

I rolled my eyes. Men.

"Come on. We should head back. I'm not a big fan of staying in the same room as all these injured people."

I waved my hand around at all the kids in beds, gauze wrapped around different parts of their body.

"Right." Logan agreed.

"Oh and Logan?"

"Hmm?"

"You're a really suckish liar."

"Hey, I was under pressure;_ your _pressure. Plus, I was covering for something _you _did to _me_."

"Okay, okay sorry." I muttered as we left the farmhouse. "By the way, who stays inside this place?"

"It's called the Big House." Dean told me. "Mr. D, Chiron and the Oracle's in here."

"The Who?"

"No, The What. Not The Who"

"I love that band, though." I said.

"Oh, me too!" Logan put in.

"The Oracle. Rachel. Well, Delphi _inside _Rachel." Dean said.

"Technically, it's the Delphic Oracle." Logan said.

"Yeah, I guess…since Delphi's the place where A—"

"Apollo was born." I finished. "I know that. But who's Rachel?"

"She's the Oracle." Dean said.

"The what?"

"The Ora—Oh never mind. She's just the girl that gives prophecies. Got that?"

"You should have explained that in the first place." I said.

**PLEASE REVIEW! Come on, how hard is it to click that stupid little button right there? Okay that's all for me. I promise to update sooner if I continue to get the reviews. :D**

**And I'm sorry this chapter sucks. The action comes soon, I swear. :)**


	11. Athena Always Has A Strategy

**Author Notes: Hey guys! Okay so my laptop got confiscated for a WEEK. yeah, i don't even know how i made it. okay, anyway. here's the new chapter! please review!**

11

Athena _Always _Has A Strategy.

It was Friday.

I loved Fridays. Fridays were amazing. It was the start of the weekend. And hell, I loved weekends.

But now that it was summer, Friday's didn't really matter. It was just another day that you do nothing. Well, that was what a regular person would think. To me, it wasn't just another day.

It was the day we play Capture the Flag.

It was exactly my seventh day at Camp Half Blood. It surprised me, actually. I had actually survived a whole week at camp. I was still alive. But, anyway, back to tonight. 8:30 P.M. We had just eaten dinner and were now armored up. We were all in the same Greek armor an in the forest, a place I had never been to yet. I was w1aring a helmet with a blue plume on top. My team had taken the side of the biggest cabins: Athena, Apollo, Hermes, and under one of the Athena camper's requests, Poseidon. I thought that the Athena cabin was going to lead us because of their strategies, but everyone picked this Poseidon kid to lead instead. Everyone said it was because he had "experience."

The other team wore red plumes on their helmets. On that side were the rest of the cabins; Ares would lead, then there was Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Demeter, and Zeus. Sadly, that meant I would have to go against the twins: Jack and Alex.

Will handed me a bow and arrow, and two small celestial bronze knives.

"No thanks." I pushed away the knives.

"You'll need them." Will said.

"But I don't even know how to use one."

"Oh come on, it's a knife."

"What do you want me to do? Pretend to be Psycho?"

"No…but it will come in handy when you run out of those arrows."

I took them from hi and sheathed them, making sure not to stab myself in the process.

"Fine. But I'd definitely rather have a sword."

"You'll have to practice sword fighting for that." Will said, continuing to give out weapons to the other camper on our team.

I stared at the two knives in my sheath. Obviously, I didn't know how to use them. The scene of psycho stabbing that girl in the shower played over and over again in my head. I should have been horrified, but I seemed to be incapable of it. The effects were so bad, I couldn't help but laugh.

"Okay." A black-haired boy clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. He had jet-black hair and sparkling green eyes. He looked like Will's age. Probably nineteen. We all gathered in a circle around him. On one side of the circle, I spotted Dean holding a long sword.

"You all know the drill. Hermes, take the Fireworks Beach. Athena, do I really have to explain this again? Apollo, defense. I'll take the creek. Oh and Annabeth,"

"Hmm?" a blonde girl said.

"Good luck."

A conch shell sounded and everyone scattered.

"Who was that?" I asked one of the Hermes campers.

"Who's who?"

"That guy. Why does everyone listen to him?"

"Not _everyone_."

"Who is he then?"

"Percy. Duh."

"Who?"

"He's like…the only son of Poseidon. Hello? Weren't you at the war? He like, saved the world."

"What war?"

"The Titan War. I mean you're at least fifteen. I'm sure you were there."

"N-No…Not really."

The camper took off towards the Fireworks beach and I ran behind a tree, a few feet away from the flag.

I was suddenly left with the flag. I got up, stared at it and circled around it. I sat down in front of it. I honestly didn't know what I was supposed to do. I puffed out a breath and gripped at the body of the flag. It seemed sturdy enough to support my weight.

Stupid ADHD made me do what I did next.

_"I wanna be a part of it…New York! New York!"_

I was breaking into my song-and-dance. I was hanging from the flagpole swinging around. No one seemed to notice. Man, this felt good.

"_New…Yooooooooork!"_

Suddenly, there was a loud yelling from the other side. Well, it wasn't exactly a yell. It was more of a shriek. Either way, it caught me off guard and sent me stumbling down. There was a thin, brown-haired girl trying to hide behind the bushes. She was in a white dress and a red plume. It was Bianca. I wanted to laugh. She may have thought that she was hidden, but she was in plain sight to me.

She was trying to steal the flag.

I was about to sneak up behind her but crashed into someone instead. We landed face down on the grass.

"Ow!" the girl struggled over me.

"Shh!" I cupped a hand over her mouth. "Don't say anything."

She started mumbling against my palm. Finally, I let go. She was in a blue plume just like me but I wasn't sure what cabin she was from. I guessed she was Hermes.

"Aren't you supposed to be at Fireworks Beach?" I asked in a hushed tone.

"I'm Athena's. We have a strategy…or at least, Annabeth does."

"Oh. Well, what are you doing here?"

"Didn't you see Bianca? She's right there." She pointed behind the bushes.

"I was just gonna go after her." I said. "I'm Nikki."

"Meghan." She shook my hand and smiled.

This was no time to make friends.

"CHAAAAAAAAAARGE!"

Our heads jerked up. A huge crowd of Apollo campers was sprinting towards us.

"Run!" the girl cried, jumping to the side and pulling me down with her. We ducked behind a big rock.

"Bianca Armstrong." One of the campers said, stepping forward. "Don't even _think _about it."

Suddenly, all the campers were stepping forward, readying their weapons.

"Now, now." Bianca said. "Let's all work this out in an orderly fashion."

She spoke in a shaky voice. She was nervous. She wasn't going to steal it. She couldn't. She wouldn't. _She had no chance against us._

Apollo campers took another step forward. Their bows were ready to shoot. Bianca turned pale.

"Alright, alright." She calmed them down. "I'll just back away and—

SO LONG SUCKAH'S!" she grabbed the flag and sprinted off. Everyone was staring at what they had just done. Let your guard down, you lose. We watched Bianca run away with our flag. We lost. It was over. Everyone took their helmets off.

"Who wants some donuts?" a camper offered.

Numerous hands rose. Donuts sound good.

Suddenly, Bianca fell.

I wasn't sure what I saw. One second she was running, the next, she was on the floor. It was odd because it seemed like she just rammed into an invisible wall or something.

Then, a girl with blonde curls appeared. She was holding a Yankees cap in her hand and had a smug smirk on her face.

"Athena _always _has a strategy." She said. "Drop it."

Bianca quickly struggled to her feet then ran. We all stared at the silver flag on the ground. It was emblazoned with a dark blue owl.

"Nice one." The blonde girl said, satisfied. She picked up the flag gingerly and balanced it in her grip. She threw it like a javelin, letting Will catch it. "Return it, okay?"

"Sure thing, Annabeth."

And just like that, she slapped on her Yankees cap and disappeared.

"WE GOT IT!" someone on the far side was yelling. "WE GOT ARES' FLAG!"

My eyes widened. We won. He just had to get over to this side and we'd win. The only thing separating the territories was the little stream. The kid looked young. He was probably eleven, with brown curls and blue eyes. I really thought he was going to make it. Really. He was almost there when sudden electricity surged through him. He just turned white then dropped to the water along with the red Ares flag. I blinked.

Behind him, a big, bulky girl stood tall behind him. I couldn't see her face because of her helmet but I knew she was at least 5"9. She was holding a long, spear-like javelin that glowed with electricity. It was taped in the center as if it had broken in the past.

"Clarisse La Rue." Meghan hissed behind me. "We are _so _dead."

Everyone started backing up slowly. Clarisse stepped forward into the stream. She took another step towards us. Everyone backed up again. Why was everyone so afraid of her? I mean, sure, she was tall. Yeah, she looked pretty strong, but why was everyone acting like she was Godzilla?

Clarisse made her way casually to our flag. No one bothered to stop her until I did about the stupidest thing in my life. I stepped right in front of her.

"Move it, punk." She spat.

"No thanks." I replied calmly. I wondered how I did that since I was scared to the bone.

"You want a piece of me?" She stepped even closer to me. My heart pounded.

"No way. I want the whole thing." I said.

She struck her javelin and cut me in the arm. The second her spear made contact with my skin, electricity rushed through my body and made me feel weak all of a sudden. I bolted back but stood my ground. I felt the blood ooze out of my wound.

"Clarisse," a voice beside me said. "No maiming."

"We may be friends, but you're still a punk." Clarisse said.

She was talking to the black-haired boy that had organized the plan a while ago. What did that Hermes boy say his name was? Percy?

He was coming up behind me with balled his fists and a ball pen. Oh God. A pen? Quickly, he uncapped it and a celestial bronze sword was in his hands. I gasped.

By now, everyone had gathered around the little stream between Clarisse and Percy. All the campers on the red side formed a semi-circle around them, the same thing happening on the blue side.

Clarisse and him stood in front of each other, knee-deep in water with the Ares flag right at their feet. All someone had to do was run in front of Clarisse, take the flag and run back over the creek to the Athena territory. I gulped. A stupid idea popped in my head.

It was easy.

I would run and take that flag and bring it to our territory.

I stepped forward. No one noticed. I took another step. No one noticed. I looked up. Logan was watching my every move. His electric blue eyes couldn't be hidden through his helmet. Even his red plume didn't distract me from them.

"Don't even think about it." He mouthed.

He shook his head. I smiled and raised my eyebrows.

One…Two…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Nate jumped forward and grabbed the flag off the ground. I glanced up at Logan. He was giving Nate the wide-eyed, "what-the-hell" look; the same one everyone else was giving him. Even Clarisse was distracted.

But then, she caught on quickly and pounced on Nate. Lucky for him, he was quick and Clarisse landed on the ground. He got to his feet and jumped over the small creek. Everyone was silent for a moment. My jaw literally dropped.

"You fools!" Clarisse yelled, stomping her foot angrily at the ground. She screamed ancient Greek curses at her team.

Then, cheers erupted.

"THAT WAS AMAZING!" People were screaming.

"Oh my God! We won!" I screamed out-of-nowhere.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?"

"WHAT IN HADES' NAME JUST HAPPENED?"

"IS ANYONE STILL UP FOR THOSE DONUTS?"

Campers from Hermes, Apollo and Athena gathered around Nate and lifted him up and carried him away, cheering and celebrating. The feeling hadn't quite settled in because, well, in most of the parts, I sat behind a rock with Meghan, watching Bianca crash into Annabeth and Nate sneak up in front of Clarisse. The campers wearing the red plumes grumbled and groaned about losing.

Logan came up to me, his helmet tucked under his arm. He had that half-smile, half-smirk on his face.

"Good game." he said.

"Yeah, well, Clarisse doesn't seem to think so."

"Nothing's a good game to Clarisse if she doesn't win."

I smiled, nodding. I've met millions of people like her. Playing just to win, never thinking that there was a possibility of losing. Logan rested his elbow on my shoulder as Meghan approached. It was my first time to see her without her helmet. I think the only reason I recognized her was her voice and her big-framed glasses. She had long, straightened brown hair and braces.

"Hey, Owens." She said, nodding at Logan.

"Hello, Solstice." Logan nodded back.

"Well, that was fun." Meghan said. "Sort of…I mean, all that trouble with Bianca wouldn't have happened if we hadn't crashed into each other.

"You guys crashed into each other." Logan repeated flatly.

"In attempt to stop Bianca." I defended, hoping not to sound stupid. The way Logan said how we just clashed into each other just made us sound like total klutzes.

"We _won!"_ Dean's singsong voice was suddenly filling the air. The trees rustled around us and I realized we were standing smack in the middle of the forest. Dean hung on to Meghan's shoulder as he stuck a tongue out at Logan. Meghan looked away for a few seconds but turned back quickly.

"Whatever," Logan rolled his eyes. "You guys get to take a shower first. No big deal."

"Don't forget: we get first in line too." Dean added. That was when I remembered. We had bet on our shower and food schedule.

"Oh, come on." Dean said, punching Logan lightly on the shoulder. "Cheer up. We still have the chariot races."

"Chariot races?" I asked. "What's that?"

"The name says it all." Logan said. "Chariots race. Personalized chariots, of course."

"You mean you have to build them?"

"You didn't expect Mr. D to build them for us, did you?"

"No but…Oh never mind."

Logan shifted.

I liked the way we talked. All of us. It was only my first week here and I already felt at home. Sure, it was no San Francisco. It didn't rain _at all._ And when it did, the rain never seemed to enter the camp. I wasn't sure if I liked that. I mean, I loved the rain just not when it wet all my stuff.

"Nikki. Hello? Are you awake?" Dean was waving a hand in front of my face.

I blinked. "What?"

"You spaced out for a while there." Logan filled me in.

Meghan was still there, watching me cautiously. Before I could ask how long I was out, Bianca turned up.

"Hey Meg," she said, smiling slightly.

"Oh hey Bee."

"I have to go." Dean said quickly. "Catch you guys later, 'kay?"

"Sure thing." Logan replied as Dean jogged up the path and out the forest.

"So…" Bianca said shyly, "I made a pretty big scene there, didn't I?"

She had her eyes fixed on Logan, constantly glancing at his arm on my shoulder. I noticed quickly and jerked him off. He gave me an awkward look then crossed his arms instead.

"Yeah." Meghan said. "That was pretty big. I mean, you crashing into Annabeth and stuff."

"You did good trying though." Logan said. I wasn't sure what I was seeing, but was Bianca blushing?

"Thanks." She murmured.

"It was fun." I said finally. "But I think I'm getting sleepy."

Logan yawned and stretched his arms. "Yeah. Me too. Let's head up?"

W

We exited the forest and made our way around the lake and over to the cabins. Logan went in the first one, which left me with Bianca and Meghan.

"He said you were good." Meghan elbowed Bianca.

Bianca laughed and blushed. "I know. I…I heard."

"Do you like Logan?" I asked suddenly. I barely knew these two girls. One I had met two days ago, another half and hour ago. But I knew I wasn't the type to just go along with something without knowing what was going on.

"Um…Yeah…" Bianca replied. She blushed, obviously shocked that I had just asked such a personal question. "He's just so…I don't know. Logan's amazing. He just…is."

I smiled. "Yeah. I know that feeling when like, you don't know why you like someone…you just do."

"Exactly…" Bianca said wistfully.

"She's been totally in love with him since she arrived at camp." Meghan put in.

"When was that?" I asked.

"Two? Two years ago?" Meghan said. "I don't know. It's been a while."

"Wow…that's…"

I realized that instead of going into our separate cabins, we had walked even farther than I thought we would. In fact, we were at the end of the land of Camp Half-Blood. We were in Fireworks Beach, the waves crashing over our feet. We had settled into a spot behind a huge boulder.

"I never caught your name." Bianca said, wiping some dirt off her white dress. "What was it again? Beth?"

"Nikki." I said, laughing at how distant her guess was from the real thing.

"Nikki…" she said, trying it out. "You're always with them. How'd you get that close?"

"With who?"

"Dean and Logan. They're like, inseparable. Best friends."

"Oh. We're not that close."

"Did he say anything about me? Logan, I mean." Bianca asked. Her eyes had a little bit of a desperate edge to them.

"Uhm…" I tried to recall that conversation I had with the two of them in the infirmary a few days ago. That was when I remembered. "He called you pretty?"

Bianca's eyes beamed and sparkled. She really _was _pretty, even with her braces.

"Yeah." I said. "The prettiest, actually."

Bianca gasped. "Are you kidding me?"

"I'm not." I said, grinning. "Really. He said that."

"What were his exact words?" she asked, quickly. Wow, she really liked him.

"Um…I was like, 'who's that?' then Logan went, 'She's Bianca.' And Dean went—"

"Skip Dean's part!"

"Uh…then he said something about you being the prettiest in the whole Aphrodite cabin."

Bianca's eyes went from wide to bulging. She sat frozen there for a whole ten minutes. By the time she started moving again, Meghan and I had started a conversation about turtles and cheese sticks.

I felt like some kind of matchmaker. Logan and Bianca were cute together. They just had to realize how much they liked each other to get the courage to actually say it out loud. I mean, it was pretty obvious Logan liked her. And I already knew that Bianca was into him. Wow, I felt all cool on the inside. I needed a name for myself. Maybe I would rip it off from that old Will Smith movie called Hitch. I could be called The Love Doctor. Ohh yeahh…

Bianca smiled, standing up.

"I'll see you guys again tomorrow." She said.

Meghan and I stood up as if on cue.

"Good night."

PLEASE REVIEW! Okay, I know this chapter really sucked. I promise I'll post soon, okay?


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